Lucerna Rooftop

The rooftops are a place where ordinarily only chimney sweeps and insulation engineers venture. Even the rooftop at Lucerna Palace sat vacant for almost a hundred years and didn’t serve as a spot for meeting people as it was originally intended. The builder of Lucerna, "Grandfather” Vácslav Havel (the grandfather and namesake of beloved Czech President Václav Havel), built the palace in order to enhance the metropolitan character of Prague.

We managed to remodel the space and cover it with a 1000 m2 deck made of Silesian larch wood. It is reminiscent of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World- or an ocean liner making its way through a storm of other buildings.

Just take the paternoster lift up to the rooftop and you’ll find yourself in a modern square with “The City of 100 Spires“ in the palm of your hand. Sometimes it serves as a simple promenade lookout with great views of the cityscape. Other times, it transforms into an exhibition space on the Havel family and the Lucerna building's history. Yoga sessions are held here; concerts with Iva Bittová and Dana Bárta take place at sunrise; and our most famous opera singer Adam Plachetka sings Mozart's opera Don Giovanni (stylised as Johndovany meaning “John in the Bathtub) to guests lying fully clothed in their formal wear in a bathtub filled with water. What’s more, the world-famous musician Avishai Cohen have had Steinway grand piano moved up here to play a concert with the sun setting behind Prague Castle in the background.

www.strechalucerny.cz


Projects: Ondřej Kobza
realisation: Jiří Jelínek