Ricany Distillery - fill it up!

Abstract: Ricany is a town with 15 000 inhabitants situated 25 minutes by train from Prague city centre. The closeness to the capital makes Ricany dependent in many spheres, mainly culture and public services, but also one of the most popular places for living in the whole Czech Republic. During the past ten years, the population has grown by 27% and due to a missing reasonable concept in urban planning, the town started sprawling to the agriculture landscape around. My project sets a different trend in Czechia – building a town from within. The 16 ha large site is adjacent to the train station, one of the most important meeting points in town. Even though the area is geographically in the centre of Ricany, due to big roads, heavy traffic and large scale buildings it is perceived as outskirts. My aim is to reconnect the site to the train station and surrounding neighborhoods and by enhancing its existing values (e.g. train station, terrain, reconstructed old distillery building) and adding new needed urban features such as public park, library and diverse housing typologies change it into a dense vivid mixed use area.