Knižní lázně. - Conversion of the Former Municipal Baths into a Community Center with a Library

FAST VUT - Faculty of Civil Engineering, Brno University of Technology, Department of Architecture

Project idea

The task at hand is the transformation of the Prostějov Municipal Baths into a vibrant community center featuring a modern library. The current library facility is inadequate in terms of capacity to meet present-day needs, and the municipal baths are also underutilized. Therefore, a new building will be constructed to house the essential functions of the 21st century, while the library will relocate into the existing municipal baths structure.

The newly proposed building, or rather its new form, envisions extensive multifunctionality. Integrating both library and community center operations is absolutely essential. Ideally, this will be complemented by a café and a hairdressing salon. All these requirements have been successfully incorporated into the design.

The new building, referred to as the "library baths," is intended to serve the general public. It will function not only as a library but also as a café, a community center for both children and adults, and a space for various leisure activities.

Project description

Urban Planning Solution

The building is situated in a highly strategic location. The idea of the library staff to create a facility that serves the general public and can be humorously referred to as the "living room of the city" is certainly appropriate. The close proximity to the city center, the location on Prostějov's "Ringstrasse," and the surrounding public infrastructure create ideal conditions for establishing an important public institution.

Specifically, the building is located on Floriánské náměstí. To the east, the area is bordered by a busy city road, beyond which lies the historic city center. This traffic artery serves not only private cars but also public transportation, with a stop right next to the building. Nearby, a bicycle path runs across this road, connecting Floriánské náměstí to the historic core of the city.

To the north, from the main facade of the building, there is a smaller city park approximately 60 x 60 meters in size. Like the adjacent bus stop, this is a recently cultivated area of solid quality. A diagonal bicycle path runs through this area, and there is appropriate street furniture infrastructure.

These two sides correspond to the importance of the public building, but the remaining surrounding space is less favorable. To the west, the building is bordered by a secondary road serving mainly local residents. There is also a small parking lot for spa visitors. It is questionable whether this would suffice for the new purpose of the building. From an urban perspective, where the city serves people and not cars, it should be sufficient. However, whether this number of spaces meets the requirements of officials is debatable. I have not delved further into this issue.

The only proposed changes to the public space concern the immediate surroundings and generally aim to intensify the connection to the park area. The first measure involves creating seating steps leading to the facade and especially to the café located in the most prominent corner. These steps will provide the café with significant contact with the surrounding public space, allowing for the placement of outdoor seating in front of the facade. The second measure involves changes to the paved surfaces. There is no change in the use of the areas; only the paved area in front of the building is reduced and replaced with gravel. Lastly, I propose re-paving the ramp with a smoother surface.

The most significant changes have been made to the "garden" of the library on the southern side of the site. Its current state is rather poor. In line with the newly designed building, its character is changed so that it can rightfully be called a garden. These interventions include: removing inappropriate and underdeveloped greenery, preserving mature trees (one of the site's significant advantages is being surrounded by mature greenery), removing unsuitable structures, digging a small "English courtyard" for clubrooms in the basement, establishing a bicycle storage facility for library staff in the currently unused small building on the southwest corner of the site, and finally, designing new paved areas corresponding to the new purpose of the garden. These interventions aim to create an atmosphere of a library garden where readers, groups of friends, or interest clubs can spend time during the summer months.

The orientation of the building, with the main entrance and facade facing the park, remains unchanged, as do the other side entrances, which are preserved in the design. The garden is considered an open space for visitors to the library. However, access is only allowed through the newly proposed building; direct access from the street gate to the garden is reserved for staff.


Architectural Solution

The fundamental concept of the design's atmosphere is the effort to maximally acknowledge the former purpose of the municipal baths and work with this heritage. This idea is closely tied to the main principle of utilizing the building's space: revealing and showcasing all the interesting areas of the former municipal baths to library users, particularly the swimming pool and the spaces beneath it for water maintenance.

The swimming pool is the core of the architectural design. The pool serves as the identity carrier of the newly proposed building. The pool functions as the interior café of the library. The pool serves as a social space, the "living room of the city." The pool occasionally serves as a large hall for events. In short, the pool is the heart of the entire building, to which all operations are connected.

Thanks to the existing skeletal system, the interior could be conceived as an open space, with the pool located at its center.

To create a representative entrance hall, significant interventions were made, including a new staircase and elevator, as well as the removal of an entire ceiling slab to achieve a higher space.

In working with the exterior, it was necessary to respond to the current dilapidated state of the building's exterior. The massing is very diverse. It could be said that it looks as if a dog and a cat, while baking a cake, decided to cook architecture.

The solution was to unify the massing. This was achieved by a "ring" of loggias on the first floor around almost the entire perimeter of the building. While in the front facade, this was achieved by transforming part of the interior into an exterior, on both side facades, it involved simple extensions. These are not the only additions; the largest extension is on the ground floor towards the garden, serving as clubrooms for library visitors.

A slight massing change also occurred on the third floor. Due to the accessibility of the roof for recreational purposes, a small addition was made to provide necessary sanitary and technical facilities.

Overall, all exterior changes aimed to give the exterior dignity and importance. That is, to make it immediately clear from a distance that "hey, an important public building stands here."

Spatial Layout

The layout is based on maximum simplicity and even primitiveness. The axiality of the building is fundamentally reflected in this sector.

The main entrance to all operations is located in the main facade. Immediately upon entering, one reaches the entrance hall. Here, there are return and pickup boxes for books and the monumental mass of the elevator and staircase. (As part of the operational solution, the existing main staircase was removed and replaced with a new, not only operationally different element.)

From this hall, visitors' paths diverge. On the first floor, to the left (when facing the elevator), is the youth department; to the right is the children's department. And of course, in the center of the layout on both the first and second floors is the pool. On the first floor, there is also a café, barbershop, children's hall, sanitary facilities, and clubrooms for children and youth.

The operation on the basement floor is designed to function completely independently of other operations when needed. That is, the rest of the building can be closed, but the basement can operate without difficulty. In this floor, there is a large hall located beneath the pool in the space previously designated for water purification. However, I found this "concrete cave" so interesting that it is preserved to the maximum possible extent. It is clear that this space is not ideal for all types of events intended for this hall, so I assume that, when necessary, the pool itself will be used for these events. In its edges, there are built-in retractable curtains that can be lowered if needed to visually and acoustically separate the space.

Back to the basement. In addition to this hall, there is a gallery (also in the former water purification space, where the same principle of maximum conservation was applied), a small hall, necessary facilities (sanitary facilities, changing rooms, kitchenette). The entire block of the building with the southern facade (the one towards the garden) is dedicated to clubrooms. While on the first floor, these are for the library's children's and youth departments, on the basement floor, they are for public clubs.

The last functional unit located in the basement is administration and storage.

The second floor is the simplest in operation. It is solely dedicated to the adult library department with all corresponding facilities (study rooms, computer classrooms...).

The third floor is conceived as a recreational terrace with only the necessary facilities (sanitary facilities and technical room).

In addition to all these functions, each floor includes sanitary facilities separated for visitors and staff (here, there are also separate facilities for staff by operations) and staff facilities such as break rooms, storage, etc.

Lastly, it is worth mentioning the bicycle storage for staff. This operational purpose utilizes a small, currently unused building on the western edge of the site (presumably previously served as a summer entrance).

Technical information

Regarding the load-bearing structures, they remain unchanged, except for the removal of the ceiling slab in the entrance hall to create a double-height space. Only minor proposed additions require attention. These would likely involve wall systems made of lightweight blocks and balcony skeletons constructed from monolithic concrete.

The façade surface is envisioned as a concrete plaster with sections featuring a relief pattern reminiscent of book shelves, inspired by the formwork texture.

The interior materiality is more varied. A prominent feature is the exposed reinforced concrete skeleton, which is present throughout. The remaining spaces can be divided into two categories, both characterized by simplicity, visual clarity, and minimalism.

The first type includes spaces such as the large hall and gallery, which are left in their original state without any alterations. Essentially, it's just concrete and new colored metal doors.

The other spaces are more layered in terms of materials. The central element is the swimming pool. Its concrete walls are painted on the outside in an orange-pink color (hereafter referred to as salmon). Inside, the pool maintains the same color but in a different material: it is entirely lined with concave tiles in three different sizes, creating "stripes." The same pattern and dimensions are used in the aforementioned formwork on the façade. These tiles are also utilized in the interior for the information and navigation system, in either white or salmon color (depending on the background).

The salmon color is also applied to the monolithic staircase (as colored concrete) and the railing. The rest of the interior features neutral tones: white plaster, terrazzo, occasionally only marmoleum imitation terrazzo (for acoustic reasons), light gray carpet, beech wood (B114 nougat – TON color sample). Lastly, as a response to the "Brussels style" of the building, there are glass blocks and rounded wall corners.

Documentation

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