Team: Alessandro Moriconi, Giuseppe Marrone

Place: Prague, Czech Republic

A TEMPORARY URBAN CATALIST

A temporary architecture designed to leave a permanent urban legacy.

Set beneath the monumental Negrelli Viaduct in Prague, the Florenc Terminal Check-In Hall redefines the idea of transport infrastructure. Rather than conceiving the station as a mere transit facility, the project transforms it into a vibrant urban catalyst, a place where mobility, public life and culture converge.

The proposal introduces a lightweight and reversible timber structure that settles delicately beneath the historic viaduct, establishing a dialogue between past and future, permanence and temporariness. Instead of competing with the existing infrastructure, the architecture amplifies its identity, allowing the viaduct to remain the protagonist while activating the forgotten spaces beneath its arches.

At the heart of the project lies a modular canopy system, a refined timber grid that organizes movement, filters daylight, provides environmental comfort, and creates a recognizable urban landmark. Its radial geometry generates a dynamic interplay of light and shadow, transforming the terminal into a porous and atmospheric civic space rather than an enclosed building. Underneath this floating canopy, a compact and transparent volume accommodates waiting areas, ticketing, retail, gastronomy, and public services, creating a seamless relationship between interior and exterior.

The intervention is deeply rooted in the concept of urban regeneration. The neglected arches of the viaduct are reimagined as active public thresholds capable of hosting cafés, cultural programs, temporary events, retail spaces, and community activities. What was once residual infrastructure becomes a living urban interface, open, accessible, and socially vibrant.

A carefully designed spatial offset between the canopy and the viaduct creates a transitional public realm where circulation, commerce, and social interaction overlap. This intermediate zone acts as a contemporary urban plaza: sheltered yet open, infrastructural yet human-scaled. Inspired by successful European regeneration precedents, the project transforms proximity into opportunity and infrastructure into civic space.

Sustainability is embedded into every layer of the design. The terminal operates as a circular architectural system based on prefabricated timber and steel components designed for assembly, disassembly, relocation, and reuse. Integrated photovoltaic panels, rainwater collection systems, passive ventilation strategies, and adaptive solar shading reduce environmental impact while ensuring year-round comfort within Prague’s climate.

More than a temporary building, the Florenc Terminal is conceived as a reversible urban strategy. Once the structure is eventually dismantled, the activated public spaces beneath the viaduct will remain, continuing to function as social and commercial urban rooms for the city. The project therefore leaves behind not an object, but a transformed condition: a more connected, inclusive, and vibrant urban environment.

The architectural language combines material intelligence, computational design, and advanced timber engineering to create a project that is both technically innovative and emotionally engaging. Warm wooden surfaces, filtered natural light, transparent boundaries, and flexible public spaces generate an atmosphere that feels simultaneously infrastructural and intimate, a contemporary gateway for Prague that celebrates movement, encounter, and urban life.

The Florenc Terminal Check-In Hall is not simply a station.
It is an evolving urban ecosystem.
A temporary intervention with a permanent civic impact.
A new public landmark beneath a historic monument.