A new neighbourhood to rise up next to Karlín will have one of the biggest parks in Prague. An exhibition at CAMP reveals the future for Rohan Island.
Rohan Island is located along the right bank of the Vltava River, adjacent to Karlín and Libeň and across the river from Holešovice. This former harbour and warehouse area is currently a somewhat forgotten part of Prague. Development planned for this area over the next twenty years calls for new residential construction, a riverside promenade with cycling path, a footbridge to Holešovice, and one of the biggest riverside parks in the city. Starting on the 15th of October, visitors to CAMP can see the current plans for the future of Rohan Island.
Rohan Island spreads across 44 hectares—for comparison, this is the equivalent of ten Wenceslas Squares. More than half of this area is earmarked for new construction. In accordance with the current land use plan, 1,750 new apartments will be built to accommodate roughly four thousand people. Another five thousand people will commute to the new neighbourhood for work. The new construction will be similar in height and character to the buildings in Karlín and its surroundings.
After more than a hundred years, the area will once again be an island thanks to the construction of a new river channel, which forms part of Prague’s flood protection measures. Rohanský Park, which is the main public investment in the area, will run along the entire length of the new island (over 100,000 m2).
“ The transformation of this extensive area will not happen overnight, but it will take place gradually in several phases. The first phase will begin next year, while the construction of the new park, and the majority of residential construction will take place between 2030 and 2040,” said First Deputy Mayor of Prague for Territorial Development, Petr Hlaváček.
As is customary at CAMP, exhibition visitors will get the most information from a unique, 24-meter-wide projection. Using a detailed data analysis, the projection attempts to present the objective impacts and benefits of developing the area.
“At CAMP, we will demonstrate the planned transformation of Rohan Island from several perspectives. We will showcase the planned construction of more than a thousand new apartments, the area for one of the largest parks in Prague right on the river, and the site of a new footbridge, all in the context of the surrounding urban development,” explained the director of the Prague Institute for Planning and Development, Ondřej Boháč.
The exhibition will also include several large, physical models on a 1:1000 scale as well as touchscreens with information about individual construction projects. Visitors can learn, for instance, about the plans for parking, how many new trees will be planted, or where the school, riverbank promenade, and cycling paths will be built. A summary of the most important information will be available in a free catalogue.
For the first time in CAMP’s two-year history, children also took part in preparing the exhibition—specifically students from the Tusarova Elementary School. They conducted a survey of the Rohan Island area, and their maps and photographs are on display at CAMP. There are also regular guided tours of the exhibition—the first with architecture enthusiast Adam Gebrian on the 22nd of October at 6 pm.
The exhibition will run from the 15th of October to the 20th of December this year. Admission to CAMP is free.
The Center for Architecture and Metropolitan Planning (CAMP) strives to improve public discussion about development in Prague. It is an important source of clear and accessible information about the city’s present and future, and functions as an open platform, a ‘base camp’ for anyone interested in collectively planning Prague’s development. CAMP is located near Karlovo náměstí in the building of the Prague Institute of Planning of Development. Visitors will find an exhibition hall with a unique large-screen projection, a study with a broad selection of foreign-language publications about architecture, urbanism and design, a pleasant café, outdoor patio and modern lecture hall with a full slate of public discussions, presentations by local and foreign experts, workshops, projections and other events.
CAMP also manages and edits the prahazitra.camp map portal, which provides an overview of all construction planned and taking place in Prague—from initial ideas and projects in preparation to those being completed at construction sites.