A new building at the Czech Republic’s Palacký
University Olomouc
On the campus of Palacký University Olomouc, the Czech
Republic’s second oldest university, a green glow emanates
from the ground floor of its newest building. The architects
from Atelier M1 Architekten have designed a clearly
composed facility for the Faculty of Science. The ground
floor’s tinted green windows produce the dramatic exterior
lighting effect, above which rises a strictly structured
façade. Homogeneously arranged windows reflect the
surroundings and the sky, while shiny black stone cladding
lends peace to the exterior.
The building’s construction forms the basis of a dynamic
concept. Glazing deliberately accounts for no more than
half of the façade’s surface area, thereby ensuring a stable
interior temperature while taking full advantage of daylight
as a lighting source. Furthermore, the ground and top floor
windows are shaded. The building’s compact heavily
insulated structure featuring storey ceilings made of in-situ
concrete contribute to its pleasant indoor climate. As a
result, two thirds of the building lacks the need for a climate
control system.
Despite possessing well-balanced temperature variation,
those large rooms which require being equipped with a
climate control system due to their use as labs, conference
and lecture halls were situated by the architects on the
sunnier south-east wing. Even so, hybrid ventilation is
possible, in that their windows may be opened when
required. The smaller rooms are located in the naturally
shaded north-west wing, where a climate control system is
entirely unnecessary. “One of our key aims was to create a
building that wasn’t permanently sealed, yet afforded
constant temperatures using a climate control system,”
explains Jan Hájek of Atelier M1 Architekten. “The
building’s occupants really appreciate being able to open a
window and enjoy the adjacent park.”
“We always try to integrate as much nature as possible into
all of our concepts – even those set in urban environments.
This is why we’ve minimized the building’s footprint in order
to allow the rest of the plot to be used as public space – for
a park and a meeting point.” In fact, the building only
occupies 3,500 square meters (38,000 sq ft) of the 20,000
square-meter building plot (215,000 sq ft). The remaining
land has been developed as green space.
The layout of the building takes the form of an elongated
cross. Its welcoming center consists of a completely white
atrium that also serves as a highly accessible meeting
point. The architectural highlight of the interior is an intricate
staircase that links all floors while offering fascinating views,
both skyward through the glass ceiling and downward to the
LED-lit floor. The glass parapets and stair railings lend
elegance in combination with the atrium’s high-gloss white
walls.
To afford easy visitor orientation, the architects developed a
color-coding system, by which each floor is identified by a
unique floor color. Matched to each floor color are wall
graphics in an appropriate complimentary color depicting
the works of renowned Czech typographers. In each case,
the nature of the graphics correspondingly relate to that of
the department. Hence, the walls of the mathematics
department, for example, are graced with mathematical
symbols. Forming the basis of this system are the colorful
shades of DLW Linoleum flooring from Armstrong.
With a color system consisting of 56 tones, the resilient
structure of Marmorette flooring offers virtually unlimited
design possibilities. From a boldly bright yellow, a warm
orange, a froggy green to a subtle light gray, the university’s
campus now features DLW Linoleum flooring in a total of 15
different colors. In particularly sensitive areas, the
dissipative version of this flooring product has been
employed.
Furthermore, due to it being composed of natural,
renewable raw materials, linoleum flooring is ideally suited
to the university’s commitment to environmental
sustainability.
Jan Hájek’s statement regarding sustainability:
“We’re trying to raise the awareness of Czech property
owners about sustainability, and that it’s more than a matter
of greening the roofs of their buildings. It’s often a
tremendous challenge, because many of the investing
parties regard things like regenerative energy features only
as cost factors or even simply as unnecessary frills.
Sometimes, though, we manage to accomplish a great deal
with measures that appear at first glance to be very simple.”