Bratislava Culenova New City Center / Zaha Hadid Architects

Bratislava Culenova New City Center in Bratislava, Slovakia by Zaha Hadid Architects:

To activate the ground throughout the whole site and provide public spaces of the highest quality, the underground car parking is covered by a one storey high modulated platform, which is perforated at strategic points for day-lit spaces that accommodate retailing, landscaped parks and various points of interest such as the cultural centre, museum shop, conference space and event halls.

Towards the site’s perimeter the platform is slightly raised at specific points to define the site’s edge and accommodate programmatic points of interest, access points to the parking levels below and access to office and residential towers above. At other strategic zones, the platform lowers to merge with the surrounding city level to link the new urban parks and plazas with the surrounding city fabric.

The scheme creates density via efficient high-rise structures while providing a generous and highly activated ground level with public spaces that are gradually differentiated within a 3-dimensional field condition.