The latest project by Josep Lluís Mateo is a transitional piece, as is subtitled on project report, is a piece; between heaven and earth. It's actually a transition piece, a brilliant intervention (as all displaying us this study) which crystallizes the difficult task of the link between the new and the old: Space is the gaseous fluid that moves between these two limits. Then the memory of the project and the project presented with good images by Adrià Goula.

In the grounds of Prague Castle, among various palaces currently reused to house the National Gallery, the brief was to design a small building that provides an entrance to the museum complex.

Two parallel surfaces organize what used to be an empty space without weighing it down: one forms the floor, the other the roof.

The floor emerges as a surface layer of the earth, folding subtly over itself to adapt to minor differences in level and ease access to the neighbouring buildings. It is hard but it also conserves some of its organic nature, materialized in plants, earth and water.

The roof, the boundary that separates us from the sky, is a continuous sheet that does not quite touch the buildings around it, producing great skylights and generating an enigmatic interplay of reflections. An organic layer, topped with gravel, that marks the bounds of a secret garden.

Space is the gaseous fluid that moves between these two limits.

The inner space is open, flexible, multiple and complex, as well as light filled. Its vertical limits are the existing façades, their only tectonicity expressed in the topography of the ground. The rest is light, reflections, and the dialogue, almost without touching, between roof and walls.

The precision of iron, in the hands of local artisans, gives form to this narrative.

Josep Lluís Mateo

CREDITS

Author, architect.- Josep Lluís Mateo
Client.- National Gallery of Czech Republic
Site.- Palacio Salm, Plaza Hradcanske, Praga
Project.- 2004
Construction.- 2009 - 2012
Surface.- 1.500 m2
Structural Engineering.- Agustí Obiol - BOMA
Landscaping.- Manuel Colominas
Installations Engineering.- Grupo JG
Fire Protection.- Francesc Labastida

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Josep Lluís Mateo was born in Barcelona (1949) and graduated in Architecture in 1974 from the ETSAB and gained his doctorate (cum laude) at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in 1994.

Mateo’s practice is based in Barcelona, and he is currently involved in a number of local and international projects such as the new Film Theatre of Catalonia in Barcelona, the new headquarters for PGGM Pension Fund Company in Zeist, Holland and the office building on the former site of Renault factories in Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, among others.

With each of his projects, Mateo seeks to connect the practice of construction with research and development in both intellectual and programmatic terms. He works in the area between the sphere of ideas and the physical world of reality.

Academic collaborations and teaching:
Josep Lluís Mateo has been Professor of the Architecture Department at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic in Zurich (ETH-Z) since 2002. He has also taught and lectured at numerous institutions around the world, including Princeton, Columbia University in New York, the Harvard Graduate School of Design, ABK Stuttgart, UP8 Paris, OAF Oslo and ITESM Mexico. He was Visiting Scholar at the Jean P. Getty Center in Los Angeles from 1991 to 1992. Josep Lluís Mateo is President since 2009 of the Board of Directors of the Barcelona Institute of Architecture. He has been a member of a number of juries and expert committees, including the Quality Committee of Barcelona City Council (2000-2008), and for prizes such as the European Landscape Award and the Thyssen Award.

Recent exhibitions and prizes:
The practice’s work has been exhibited on numerous occasions thanks to its international influence. New York’s MoMA devoted a space in the exhibition “Spain: On Site” (2006) to its apartment building in Valencia for the Sociopolis Project. Individual exhibitions include those at Ras Gallery (Barcelona, 2009), Architekturgalerie Aedes (Berlin, 2004), Architekturzentrum Wien (Vienna, 1998), Col•legi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya (Barcelona, 1998),Galerie Fragner (Prague, 1998), Galerie Aedes (Berlin, 1994), Architekturgalerie Luzern (Luzern, 1992) and Architekturgalerie Munich (Munich, 1991).

The work of Josep Lluís Mateo has been awarded many prizes, including:
- Top International Purpose-Built Venue 2008, First Prize. Best International Convention Centre category.
Organized by C&IT magazine, London. Project: CCIB-Barcelona International Convention Centre
- 2008 Archizinc Award, First Prize. Collective Housing category. Project: Sant Jordi Students’ Hall of Residence, Barcelona
- European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture - Mies van der Rohe Award 2005, Runner-up. Project: CCIB- Barcelona International Convention Centre
- 15th Award of Grupo Dragados de Arquitectura.

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Published on: May 27, 2013
Cite: "PRAGUE NATIONAL GALLERY ENTRANCE HALL 2004-2012 by MATEO ARQUITECTURA" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/prague-national-gallery-entrance-hall-2004-2012-mateo-arquitectura> ISSN 1139-6415
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