Landscape
The compound is located at the corner of the busy streets Průmyslová and Teplárenská/Tiskařská in the eastern part of Prague. It is part of the Malešice Industrial Zone.
The location is formed by a slightly undulating landscape bounded in the north by the Rokytka valley and in the south by the Botič valley. The area is at an altitude of 255 m above sea level.
The landscape has been significantly transformed by the construction of infrastructure and extensive industrial complexes.
Industrial zone
At the beginning of the 20th century, Malešice was still a village, where people made a living mainly from agriculture. Malešice remained a peripheral settlement with a village character until the end of the 1950s, when the construction of a prefab housing estate began here.
In the early 1960s, there was a plan to create a large industrial zone in the fields east of historical Malešice. Its spatial plan was drawn up in 1965 by architects Honeiser and Strašek. The concept was connected to the north-south high capacity road of the so-called industrial semi-circle, connecting Letňany and Štěrboholy. In the locality, this backbone road is called Průmyslova Street.
During the planning and construction period, the industrial zone was on the outskirts of Prague. Since then the city has undergone rapid development and its boundaries have moved further into the countryside.
A significant transformation awaits the industrial area. A necessary part of that transformation will be the conversion of an originally monofunctional zone into a multifunctional urban district. The goal of this plan is to design a campus that will be a meaningful part of the future of this part of the city.
Site
The site of the project was originally part of the extensive production complex of the company Prefa Praha. The existing building from the late 1960s housed its administrative headquarters.
Prefa Praha produced panels for residential construction. Panels produced in Malešice were used in a large part of Prague‘s prefab housing constructions (Prosek, Jižní Město, Bohnice). Later, the administrative site was separated from the production plant and today it operates independently.
Infrastructure
The site‘s infrastructure was designed for industry with high electricity supply. The compound can easily be connected to high voltage power lines from several different directions.
The transport connections are very good here.. Průmyslova Street is part of the so-called Prague Industrial Semicircle with a connection to the national highway network.
The location is ideal for an urban data centre and technology innovation hub.
Mass
The data halls are located in new buildings structurally separated from other operations. There are no service entrances from the grounds to this building. All normal operations take place via an underground connection from the existing building, where there are preparation rooms, unwrapping rooms, client facilities and offices. The existing office building will thus become the entry point to the data halls and customer facilities.
In the next stage, we propose supplementing the complex with a new innovation center building with rentable spaces, which will form the corner of Průmyslová and Teplárenská Streets. Its main entrance will be on the ground floor.
The traffic connection includes the creation of a new exit from Průmyslová Street to the property. The exit will be on Teplárenská Street, on which there is a nearby place to turn in the opposite direction and reconnect back to Průmyslova Street.
Height
The new buildings correspond to the existing seven-story office building. Each tower of the data building has six floors above ground. It is thus possible to divide the construction of the data halls into phases.
The campus is complemented by a new multifunctional building on the corner. It has eight above-ground floors according to the height regulations of the Metropolitan Plan. It thus forms a dominant feature of the area.
Basement
The data buildings are accessible from the existing building only by technical support and customers through an underground corridor with security filters.
They are thus isolated from the surrounding environment and outside threats. Client and preparation areas are in the existing building.
The basement under the data halls is dedicated to energy infrastructure, fire suppression systems, etc.
Ground floor
On the ground floor of the office building and the innovation centre, there is a foyer with access to the other floors. Both buildings are connected by a footbridge on the ground floor level. There is also access to the preparation room via a cargo ramp with an unpacking area.
The ground of the data buildings are identical to the typical floor. Entrances at this floor are for fire escape and major technology replacement only.
The land surrounding the data buildings is fenced. Areas for backup source containers and crane handling space for roof installations are included.
Typical floor
A typical data building floor contains the data hall itself in the centre of the layout. It is surrounded by technical areas of cooled aisles, vertical communications and clean preparation rooms.
The office buildings with workshops and the new innovation centre have an open layout with a communication core in the middle. This concept will allow for a flexible layout of the floor layout. It can stay an open space, or it can also be divided into closed offices.
Data building
The layout of the data floors is designed with an emphasis on operational safety.
The hall is separated from the surrounding environment on all sides by at least two independent structures. The entrance to the hall is also from the communication core through at least two doors with access control.
The location of the technical cooling corridors along the facade will enable the use of direct cooling in case of a sufficiently low exterior temperature. In the vertical arrangement of concept A – the data towers – it is not economical to place outdoor cooling units on the roof. Their location is designed to be at floor level in the ventilated gallery on the north facade. In concept B – a single three-story data building – the outdoor cooling units are located on the roof.
The energy infrastructure and engine rooms of the fire-fighting equipment are located in the basement. The backup diesel generators are on the vacant part of the fenced plot.