The new Florenc 21 district will connect Karlín with New Town and will feature primarily residential development, complemented by offices, services, and a hotel. High-quality public spaces and pedestrian zones will improve the surroundings of the Florenc metro station. The total floor area of the new development will be 108,000 m².

“This architectural competition has brought leading figures of world architecture to Prague. It builds on the successful urban planning competition held in 2021, when the resulting spatial concept was incorporated into a planning agreement with the investor, approved in June. We can now see the outcome in the form of concrete architecture that will connect New Town, Karlín, and Žižkov into a single, functional whole and a residential city for people,” said Petr Hlaváček, Deputy Mayor of the City of Prague for Territorial and Strategic Development.

As part of the architectural competitions, teams designed six blocks in the western part of the site, respecting the block layout, building lines, height regulations, and transportation solutions defined by the regulatory drawing, which forms a binding part of the planning agreement.

Transportation and public space are key themes of the new district. “The new Florenc district will support active forms of mobility through high-quality public spaces. Streets and small squares between the buildings will function as pedestrian zones, allowing movement by pedestrians, cyclists, service vehicles, and emergency services. Beneath all blocks, sufficiently sized underground garages will be built, connected to both Prague 1 and Prague 8. For Blocks B01 and B04, the brief specifically required flexibility in relation to the north–south arterial road,” said Ondřej Boháč, Director of the Prague Institute of Planning and Development.

The winning proposals together form a diverse yet coherent urban district based on active ground floors, high-quality public space, and a functional mix of uses. With an estimated investment of CZK 20 billion by Penta Real Estate, Florenc 21 will include housing, offices, hotels, retail spaces, and a modern bus terminal. Construction is planned to begin in 2028, with completion expected by 2031.

The National Heritage Institute participated in the competitions as expert members of the jury, contributing to the preparation of the briefs and the evaluation of proposals, including the winning designs.

Winning teams by block:

• Block B01 (Na Florenci Street): Adept (Denmark) with ohboi (Czech Republic) – two office buildings flanking the arterial road, conceived as a gateway to the new district, with a temporary pop-up market activating the space beneath the road.
• Block B02 (residential): Aulík Fišer architekti, Machar & Teichman, studio reactor (Czech Republic) with Partero (landscape architecture) – a traditional Prague residential block with a private courtyard and active ground-floor uses, directly connected to the Florenc metro exit.
• Blocks B03 and B05: Two first prizes awarded.
  – B03: Edit! Architects and A69-architekti (Czech Republic) with NL Architects (Netherlands).
  – B05: Kempe Thill (Germany), re:architekti (Czech Republic), and baukuh (Italy), proposing collective housing with shared community spaces.
• Block B04: LAN (France) with P2PA (Poland) – the most functionally diverse block, combining housing and a hotel and directly connecting to the Masaryčka building.

Interest in the project was strong: 157 teams from 33 countries registered for the competitions. Following a multi-stage selection process, 16 finalists presented their proposals to the international jury. The competitions took place in 2024–2025 in close cooperation between the City of Prague, IPR Prague, Penta Real Estate, and the city districts of Prague 1 and Prague 8.

In a separate competition for Czech and Slovak studios, Block B06 was awarded to A8000, whose design builds on the layered history of the site and sensitively integrates with its surroundings.

Visualizations and photographs are available at Florenc 21.