Interview with Marcela Steinbachová in magazine Vogue CS
Issue: 12/2025
Interview: Veronika Pařízková
Her role is clear: to show the public that it makes sense to take an interest in architecture. However, it is not about popularizing attractive and modern buildings. Marcela Steinbachová strives to make us all understand that architecture plays a fundamental role in our lives. She has been searching for the key to conveying this message for more than two decades. And it seems that she knows very well how to unlock our interest.
Praha
Project: 2025
Realisation: 2025
Author: Marcela Steinbachová, Pavel Směták
investor: Divadlo v Dlouhé
The renovation focused on the main hall of the theater, which is located in the city palace built in the art-deco style in the late 1920s. The design follows the then concept of the operetta interior in the basement, which was conceived eclectically and connected the Baroque shapes of the balconies and ceiling with the delicate details of the grilles and paintings. The interior was described in the contemporary press as pleasantly surprising. "The walls are kept in warm English red, painted with silver filigree and ivory. The railings are silver. Silver is also repeated in a discreet form in the lighting fixtures, fireplace grilles, fittings, etc." This original interior design gradually disappeared in layers of repainting and due to the great flood in 2002, after which the theater was completely renovated. The interior was designed in a distinctive red color of the seats and carpets, which were complemented by gray wall surfaces and gold details of metal elements.
The new reconstruction of the hall was necessary primarily due to the retired seats and is also related to the change in the artistic direction of the theater; the shape of the auditorium elevation was not changed and the floor was not structurally interfered with. The design is based on the original period interior of the operetta with art deco details. The auditorium space is unified by a palette of muted color shades of English red and allows the events on the stage to stand out. The principle of the then color of selected elements is preserved - a light strip of the balcony and ceiling with lighting and a darker back plan of the auditorium. The richer red painting is covered with a delicate linear decor, continuing the original concept with ornaments. The choice of the color of the carpet and seat upholstery is also based on the unified value. The details use gray-silver paint for the grilles.
An atypical, simple-shaped seat was designed for the hall, which was based on the previous ones with an extension of the seat. The color of the seat upholstery and the staining of the plywood parts of the armrests are always unified by the same shade, a softer reddish color for the parterre, and a neutral gray for the balcony.
The reconstruction of the hall is the first significant step towards the renovation of the entire interior of the theater. The renovation of other spaces is planned in the next stage.
Photographs: Tomáš Souček
Prague Vršovice
Project: 2024
Realisation: 2025
Author: Marcela Steinbachová
Collaborator: Julia Smolińska, Ing. arch. Pavel Směták
Private investor
The apartment building in Vršovice, dating from the early 20th century, had original surfaces that were significantly damaged by use, and the corridors had been altered by renovations in the 1980s, when green was the dominant color. The aim of the new design was to restore the elegance and original details of the common areas and to unify the color scheme into more muted and simple colors. The original, significantly damaged ornamental tiles on the ground floor were professionally removed and used to replace cracked areas on the upper landings. The ground floor entrance hall was unified by a new floor made of cast black terrazzo with a decorative border. The non-original wall coatings on the staircases were replaced by muted colors with a light detail (strip), which highlights the ornamental floors on the landings. The metalwork elements of the railings were refurbished and given a dark graphite color, while the paint was removed from the handrails, leaving the wood surface exposed. The staircase at the entrance is dominated by a new brass ornament, a decorative pine cone.
Photographs: Tomáš Souček
Marcela Steinbachová was a guest in the podcast Mluvící objekty on the Czech Radio.
This podcast episode focuses on the 2005 competition proposal for the new design of Wenceslas Square by Marcela Steinbach and Bronislav Stratil, which was radical. The square is stripped of trees, the entire surface is paved with a glass-concrete grid of blocks letting light into a huge underground gallery that connects all the surrounding passages.
04 Václavské náměstí - Mluvící objekty
Prachatice - Nová střela
Competition: 2024
Author: Marcela Steinbachová
Coauthor: Pavel Směták, Štěpán Perný
Landscape design: Pavlína Malíková
Investor: město Prachatice
Nová Střela is being transformed from an existing shooting range into a vibrant sports and community center. This project reimagines the area as an open, dynamic space that fosters a wide range of activities and innovative development. The addition of wooden galleries and platforms encourages free use for sports, recreation, and gatherings.
The design leverages the footprints of existing buildings, converting them into attractive structures that integrate housing, education, and the surrounding natural environment. The former shooting range offers a diverse array of activities for all generations, providing the proper resources to house both recreational and high-level sports. Relaxation areas are thoughtfully placed between the ranges, and a small square to the south provides a focal point for the planned neighborhood to emphasize community and connect the site.
The main building's façade is insulated and enhanced with wooden galleries and terraces that offer shading; this renovation creates an inviting, open structure with maximum transparency. The use of red-stained wooden elements throughout the galleries and playgrounds unifies the design and underscores the area's public and community-focused purpose. The smaller shooting range building is repurposed into a community center, equipped for children's performances, birthday parties, educational activities, and other events such as these. A partially enclosed, screened galleries ensures a safe environment for children to move about freely without any potential danger.
The project's landscape design maximizes the preservation of existing trees on the property, retaining valuable specimens and adding new plantings of predominantly native species. This approach naturally integrates the site with the surrounding landscape, enhancing the overall ecological and aesthetic value of Nová Střela, while respecting the project’s natural environment.
Červený Kostelec - Skittle alley in the park
Invited architectural competition: 2024
Author: Marcela Steinbachová
Coauthor: Pavel Směták, Štěpán Perný
Investor: město Červený Kostelec
The bowling alley is designed as a building on the shore of the former pond and encroaches on the park in a similar way to the construction of the covered pier. It allows a direct connection to the park, permeability through the area and seeks to avoid some of the existing trees. Like the piers on the ponds, it is set on a wooden structure and its location and character allows the southern, more comfortable part of the park to be used in spring and winter.
The structure is based on the dimensions of the bowling and skittle alleys and its elongated shape corresponds to this. It represents a kind of wooden 'music box' which outwardly expresses its purpose. The external shaping corresponds to the brief and the 4 lanes of the bowling alley are inscribed in the eastern façade as well as in the decorative perforations on the façade or the triangular shaping of the other parts. The building is loosely inspired by the simple timber buildings in the park (e.g. gazebos, dance halls) on the edges of the ponds or for the purposes of the cones, scout clubhouses and historic buildings in Červený Kostelec, and is also based on the context with reference to the abolished pond.
The main and unifying material of the proposed building are wooden elements stained green with selected red details. The building is designed as a wooden structure, with the exception of the reinforced concrete structure in contact with the terrain in the location of the service parts in the west. The outer facade shell is designed from green-stained water-resistant plywood. The concrete walls are also painted green with a decal of plywood boards and battens, thus connecting to the wooden part of the outer shell.
Prague
Project: 2023–2024
Realisation: 2024
Author: Marcela Steinbachová
Collaborator: Ing. arch. Marie Krabačová
Private investor
The apartment is located on the ground floor of a house in Prague's Vršovice. The changed layout of the apartment increased the standard of the flat and added a full bathroom. All the valuable elements of the apartment have been preserved. The repaired joinery elements were complemented by original fittings. The demolished door was transformed into a new storage space. In addition, the frieze floors were repaired and added. The restored terrazzo flooring resembles the original floors in a simplified way. The newly created bathroom is clad in timeless white mosaic with interlocking paired tiles and floor tiling.
Photographs: Tomáš Souček
Marcela Steinbachová was a guest on the programme Vizitka on the Czech Radio Vltava station.
In what ways will it be difficult to build a new house in a few years? And how are they thinking about their own projects? Karolína Koubová asks.
Prague - Vinohrady
Realization: 2023-2025
Author: Marcela Steinbachová
Exhibition and art installation designs in the sister gallery of Prostora in Prague's Vinohrady. The original telephone exchange hall was only cleaned and all traces of the building's history were left intact. Individual exhibition installations always work with this building essence and also use materials that were stored during the partial reconstruction. Instead of exhibition plinths, the original wire glass from the gallery's windows is used, and traces of former equipment are included in the hanging works. The exhibition concept is created in close collaboration with individual artists, and the works and space are connected into meaningful wholes. The site-specific installation completes the natural daylight and the lighting of the hall's structural elements with added lighting fixtures on tripods.
Photographs: Jana Vojnárová, Tomáš Souček
Exhibition: Steven Holl: Making architecture
Gallery NTK in Prague
Duration: 7/10 - 20/11/2022
The traveling exhibition presented 11 completed projects by Steven Holl Architects and as part of its European tour, the show also features the Ostrava Concert Hall and Terezin Ghetto Museum, the competition-winning design in our collaboration.
The exhibition was presented by Gallery NTK (National Library of Technology) in Prague in cooperation with Gallery of Fine Arts in Ostrava, Cabinet of architecture and Steven Holl Architects New York.
Photos: Marcel Rozhoň
