Skola Smíchov
Toronto-based Office Ou has been selected as the winner of an international competition to design a new public school in the historic Smichov district of Prague. The school has received its final municipal construction permit and is expected to be completed by 2026.
| Location: | Prague, Czech Republic |
|---|---|
| Status: | Competition Winner (Construction Start Spring 2025) |
| Date: | 2018 - Present |
| Local AOR: | M1 |
Office Ou has been selected as the winner of an international competition to design a new public school in the historic Smichov district of Prague. Organized by the Centre for Central European Architecture (CCEA MOBA) on behalf of the City of Prague, the competition drew 66 entries from around the world.
Designed in collaboration with Poland’s INOSTUDIO Architects, Office Ou’s Smichov elementary school will be the first new urban public school built in central Prague in nearly 100 years. The new 10,000 m2 building will accommodate approximately 540 students aged 6 to 14. It is located within the ambitious Smichov City redevelopment, which aims to transform some 200,000 m2 of former urban railway lands near Prague’s historic centre into a mixed-use community that prioritizes green space, walkability, and a fine-grained urban fabric.
The school's design is guided by the idea of fostering a sense of social and environmental stewardship in students. This can be seen as learning how to take care, at a scale that expands as children grow: taking care of themselves, of their classmates, of the school community, and finally of the wider urban community and natural world. A building can support this by offering opportunities for students to engage with the city and with nature, to see themselves as part of a wider community, and find connections between classroom learning and the outside world.
At the site level, the building forms an urban edge to the main neighborhood boulevard, where the main entry is located along with amenity spaces open for public use after school hours. The playing field and running track on the east steps to the public park with a set of tiered steps, and the groundkeeper's house is placed to watch over the vehicle dropoff and secondary entrance.
The building itself is conceived of as a simple, gridded framework, populated by classrooms, gyms, offices, terraces, gardens, etc. This frame formally unifies the building while allowing the diversity and individuality of the different program elements to flourish. Internally, the school is organized around a central atrium and stair that connects all floors and lands at the auditorium. This serves as the central gathering space for the school community. The ground level contains the major shared spaces including the cafeteria, auditorium, gyms, club rooms. Level +1 is reserved for Tier 1 (junior) students, Level +2 is for Tier 2 (senior) students, and Level +3 is for specialty classrooms, each with its own quietly whimsical roof shape. Rooftop terraces and courtyards bring light deep into the building, and provide secure play spaces and gardens. Individual classrooms are clearly legible within their grid, and their balcony spaces encourage students and teachers to show their work off to the city. The entire building speaks of its internal life, and hopefully encourages students to see it as their school, home, and community.
Level 0
Level +1
Level +3
Home and Nature: Delaware Ave Adaptive Reuse
Tucked away behind rows of houses, an old auto garage lay vacant for decades. When new owners acquired the site, they decided it was time to breathe life back into the old auto garage by converting it into their new home, but wanted to preserve its charm and industrial character.
| Location: | Toronto, Ontario |
|---|---|
| Status: | Under Construction |
| Date: | 2024 - Present |
Tucked away behind rows of houses, an old auto garage lay vacant for decades. When new owners acquired the site, they decided it was time to breathe life back into the old auto garage by converting it into their new home, but wanted to preserve its charm and industrial character.
The layout and materiality of the existing auto garage showcases the evolution and history of the site, as it is actually composed of multiple amalgamated structures which have appeared on site over the past hundred years. This adaptive reuse project is focused on creating a comfortable home that meets ambitious energy efficiency targets while channeling the existing character of the industrial buildings on site.
Courtyards have been introduced within the old walls of the ex-industrial building, increasing the amount of light within the large footprint, and vastly increasing the landscaped areas on site (for enjoyment, water management and biodiversity).
Sejong Museum Gardens - National Museum Complex of South Korea
Office Ou has been announced as the winner of South Korea's International Competition for the National Museum Complex Master Plan of the New Administrative City (Sejong City). Chosen as the winning design among a field of 81 entries from 26 countries around the world, Office Ou's Sejong Museum Gardens will play a crucial role in shaping the cultural landscape of South Korea's new metropolis. The competition entry was made in collaboration with Junglim Architecture as the local architect of record.
| Location: | Sejong, South Korea |
|---|---|
| Status: | Competition Winning Entry (Under Construction) |
| Date: | 2016 - Present |
Office Ou has been announced as the winner of South Korea's International Competition for the National Museum Complex Master Plan of the New Administrative City (Sejong City). Chosen as the winning design among a field of 81 entries from 26 countries around the world, Office Ou's Sejong Museum Gardens will play a crucial role in shaping the cultural landscape of South Korea's new metropolis. The competition entry was made in collaboration with Junglim Architecture as the local architect of record.
Sejong City, the new administrative city of South Korea, shifts many of the national government's functions south from Seoul. Already home to 36 government agencies and over 300,000 residents,
Sejong City's growing political and administrative importance will be complemented by what the competition promoters hailed as a “world-class cultural complex that will be on par with Berlin's Museuminsel, Vienna's Museumsquartier, and Washington D.C's Smithsonian museums.” Situated in the heart of the nascent city along the bank of the Geum River, Sejong’s National Museum Complex will be a major cultural center for all of Korea, hosting a diverse range of new institutions. Museums devoted to Architecture and the City, Design, Digital Heritage, Natural History, and Korea's Archival Traditions will join Office Ou's National Children's Museum, along with a number of smaller institutions. In total, nearly a dozen museums—an exact number has yet to be set—will be spread throughout the site.
A - Central Operations Center
B - National Children's Museum
C - Additional Museums
D - Natural History Museum
E - National Archives Museum
F - National Digital Heritage Museum
G - National Design Museum
H - National Architecture and City Museum
I - Central Plaza
K - Terracing Rice Paddies
L - Wetlands
M - Che Creek Ecological Corridor
N - Mountain and Forest Landscape
Office Ou's master plan for the 190,000 m² site combines the remarkable and diverse surrounding landscape (rice paddies, wetlands, forests, riverbanks, urban fabric), with the basic logic of Korea’s Joeseon Dynasty palace architecture. Like the palace, Sejong Museum Gardens uses a consistent architectural language throughout, but differentiates itself through changes in scale, and in response to the natural topography. Its architecture does not strive to be iconic in itself, but instead acts as a frame or vessel for landscape, drawing it into a set of courtyards and forecourts. Each museum's identity is reinforced by thematic links to an associated landscape.
For example, the productive orchard landscape that characterizes the Children's Museum invites kids to play and explore the space. The Archives Museum will be set within a mountainous topography, fostering an appropriate sense of seclusion and security. The Architecture Museum is defined by hard landscaping with a distinctly urban feel, relating to the city’s developing retail and arts district across the Che Creek. In naming the project Sejong Museum Gardens, the garden is recognized as a vital link between culture and nature. Our hope is that the project can give the people of Sejong—and South Korea—a place to understand and nurture this relationship.
The competition jury praised the project’s “exquisite control of space,” as well as “the spatial relationship between nature and built form, which is successfully anchored in human scale.” Particular acclaim was also reserved for “the interpretation of nature as an architectural element,” and the unorthodox decision to emphasize landscape over built form. The competition jury included South Korea's Sungkwan Lee of Seoul National University, Yongmi Kim of Geumseong Architects & Engineers, Junsung Kim of Konkuk University and Architecture Studio hANd, and Sunghong Kim of the University of Seoul, as well as Japan's Nobuaki Furuya of Waseda University and Studio Nasca, and Christopher Sharples of SHoP Architects from the United States.
Following the completion of the masterplan, Office Ou designed the first three buildings of the National Museum Complex, working in partnership with South Korea's Junglim Architecture. These include the National Children's Museum, the Museum Complex's Central Storehouse and Central Operations Centre.
The first phase of the project, comprised of 3 buildings was completed in 2024.
Depiction of Changdeokgung and Changgyeonggung palaces, circa 1830.
Materials and landscape combine to form unique identities for each museum
Architectural design - basic formal guidelines
Architecture Museum forecourt
Design Museum forecourt
Digital Heritage Museum forecourt
Natural History Museum
Natural History Museum
Additional Museums
Children's Museum Approach
Children's Museum Forecourt in winter
Children's Museum stair down to exhibition areas
Children's Museum exhibition courtyard
Children's Museum terrace