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.

Terezín
Architectural competition: 2022 (1st prize)
Author: Marcela Steinbachová
Author of Space of Light: Steven Holl
Cooperation: Veronika Tichá (study), David Korecký (exhibition concept), Vladimir Pavlovič (construction consultant), Jan Sulzer and Lada Veselá from Terra Florida (landscape design), Jan Mojka, Marie Harigelová
Vizualization: Michal Nohejl (obrazek.org)
Investor: Terezín Memorial

Ghetto Museum

Terezín, a Baroque town, was founded in 1780 as a military fortress. It is a town with a fascinating site plan organized orthogonally with blocks and areas with parks. Terezín also witnessed historical events that cannot be forgotten. During World War II, the town served as Jewish Ghetto and the Small Fortress as a Gestapo prison. Between 1940 to 1944, more than 150,000 Jews were sent there, including 15,000 children, and an estimated 33,000 people died due to extreme population density and malnutrition.

In the middle of Terezín there is The Ghetto Museum, a witness to past lives and tragedies, but also a memorial to courage and hope. It is housed in a former school building built in 1879. In our design, the former school becomes part of the exhibition and is supplemented by a new functional solution, which emphasizes significant values and challenges, and accommodates more visitors to the Museum. It is a place not only of remembrance, but also of contemporary life and the direction and lessons of history.

Space of Light, a new addition, is a space of light and a hope. Ascending the tower, it is a clear expression of the concept and programmatic requirements. Space of Light is a place where one can experience spectral light phenomena when the white daylight is refracted into a spectrum of colors—the colors of humanity. The walls are white plaster and the floor is terracotta, surfaces onto which light and color fill the space. The space is flexible for events, but it primarily serves as a contemplative space.

The building itself is covered with naturally weathering Verdigris copper. The building peeks out between the surrounding houses as an icon. At night, the glowing building will be a beautiful sight.

The school building overall is sensitively renovated with an emphasis on the restoration of all surfaces and original elements. The building tells a story and refers to its history with a fine layer of exposed surfaces. A new layout of the permanent exhibition about the Terezín Ghetto is designed for participatory involvement of the visitor as an actor, not just a spectator. There are many interactive elements in the exhibition such as a hologram projection, touch screens, listening bells, and a light installation in the attic with which the visitors actively engage.

Museum Surroundings

The design also includes modifications to the surrounding areas and parks of the museum. The common motif of landscape design is to work with vegetation to complement the architecture with dignity and refinement in the environment.

In front of the Museum there is a newly paved square, which seamlessly connects to the green space of a city park 'Jiráskovy sady'. The Museum Garden is a meditative space with a water feature and preserves several original tree species with the supplementation of new ones. The Park of Terezín Children behind the Museum is conceived as an enclosed quiet area with a flower meadow and a minimalist memorial water wall. A motif of the pavement which disintegrates freely towards the lawn is used all around the Museum.

Information Center and Parking Lot of the Terezín Memorial

The planned Information Center and Car Park are designed with a simple contemporary architectural approach. The design is driven by clarity of orientation in space as well as sufficient comfort for guests with plenty of welcoming green areas. It is a renovation using parts of the existing building for a new solution, including load-bearing concrete walls and ceilings. The Information Center is designed as a glazed building with a copper roof, which significantly extends beyond the building and provides visitors shelter from the rain or sun. There is a passageway in the middle of the building from the parking lot to the existing orchard with ample bistro seating, providing a calm and quiet area for visitors. The existing fruit trees will remain until gradual replacement by ornamental cultivars of cherries, apple, almond and pear.

The concept of the Car Park is designed to not only fulfill the transit function, but also provide space for rest and waiting. The oval detour and the arrangement of parking spaces on both sides give rise to the generous central area for living and vegetation. The area will be planted with groups of deciduous trees of domestic origin with a planting of perennials and ornamental grasses and supplemented with new furniture. The section furthest from the main road is dedicated to bus parking, areas near the information center are intended for disabled parking and other areas are designated for cars, some with the possibility for recharging stations. Six longitudinal bus stops are reserved for safe passenger exits directly to the central pedestrian zone.

Cheb
Competition: 2021
Author: Marcela Steinbachová
Cooperation: Veronika Tichá
Investor: Foundation Historical Cheb
Vizualization: Marie Harigelová, Jan Mojka, Anna Tokareva

A conversion of two historical buildings - former granary and armoury - to The Middle European Centre of historical trusses was based on preservation of authentic constructions and their completion with contemporary functional elements. Historical contructions are not only contructions itselfs but also parts of the exposition.

České Budějovice
Architectural competition: 2021
Author: Marcela Steinbachová
Coauthor: Veronika Tichá, Vladimír Pavlovič (construction consultant)
Investor: Municipality of statutory city České Budějovice
Vizualization: Michal Sljusar

Refurbishment of the house on the main city square Přemysla Otakara II. to the new Centre of contemporary art and architecture which should follow up and extend significant activity of the gallery House of Art České Budějovice.

Veselí nad Lužnicí
Competition: 2020 (2nd place)
Author: Marcela Steinbachová
Cooperation: Vít Holý
Investor: The municipality of Veselí nad Lužnicí

The small square with new trees becomes integrated and adequate place for gathering, celebrations and trade. Surfaces are simple and barrier free. The main surface is made of granite cobblestones with a motif of the Rosenbergs rose in front of the church.

Vizualization: Vít Holý

Prague
Study: 2020
Author: Marcela Steinbachová
Coauthor: Vít Holý
Vizualization: Vít Holý

Bechyně
Study: 2020
Author: Marcela Steinbachová
Coauthor: Vít Holý
Investor: private person
Vizualization: Vít Holý

Chotěboř
Architectural competition: 2020 (2nd prize)
Author: Marcela Steinbachová
Coauthor: Vít Holý
Investor: Chotěboř municipality
Vizualization: Vít Holý