Architektura has completed a new headquarters for Prague’s Fire Rescue Service, combining robust civic infrastructure with a slender red tower that anchors the organisation’s Holešovice campus.
Architektura has completed a visually-striking headquarters for Prague’s Fire Rescue Service in Holešovice, forming the second phase of a wider campus that brings the organisation’s operational and administrative functions together on a single site. Located at a prominent intersection in the predominantly residential and office district, the building is conceived as a strong landmark while retaining the directness and durability associated with civic infrastructure. A slender nine-storey tower accommodates the principal administrative spaces and is linked to the operational building completed during the first phase of the development.
The complex comprises three interconnected elements: the administrative tower, an adjoining technical and operational block, and a three-storey drive-through structure that creates a transitional gateway between the two phases of the campus. Administrative areas are separated from technical and support functions, allowing daylight, acoustics and circulation to be tailored to their different requirements.
The tower is wrapped in a regular grid of terracotta-red glass-fibre-reinforced concrete panels, providing a unified appearance and strong presence on the surrounding streets. Lower connecting volumes are clad in square red aluminium panels, introducing a more explicitly technical character at ground level.
Inside, the restrained material palette continues with exposed reinforced concrete walls and ceilings, unplastered white masonry partitions and visible building services. Ceramic tiles and polished concrete are used at ground-floor level, while upper floors combine heavy-duty PVC flooring, polished concrete and ceramic finishes. Red-glazed doors, reception furniture, mailroom elements and kitchenettes extend the colour of the external envelope into the interior.
Signage and institutional graphics have been incorporated into the architectural composition, including the Fire Rescue Service identity and emergency number, rather than applied as separate elements.
The roof accommodates both technical equipment and usable outdoor areas. Green roofs and terraces provide external amenity space, while plant is integrated into the building’s structural and façade grid. An 18.2-metre steel lattice antenna mast rises above the lift core, extending the vertical profile of the tower and reinforcing its infrastructural character.
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