Prague is choosing the architectural design of the Podbaba – Troja – Bohnice cable car

05. 05. 2022

Prague, 5 May 2022 – The Prague Public Transit Company is preparing to announce an architectural competition for the design of stations and supports of the planned new Podbaba – Troja – Bohnice cable car. The competition is open to all architects and studios that design transport structures. Applicants can apply to participate in the competition until the end of May. The winner will be decided by an eleven-member jury during August this year. The winner will receive a reward of 1.8 million Czech crowns. The terms and conditions of the architectural competition will be published by the Prague Public Transit Company on its profile in the Tender arena no later than on Monday, 9 May 2022.

The Podbaba – Troja – Bohnice cable car, the preparation and implementation of which was entrusted to the Prague Public Transit Company based on the decision of the Council of the Capital City of Prague dated 15 June 2020, will have three stations and five supports located between them. The track of the cable car will have one branch, and thus only one drive unit driving the rope in both its sections. The subject of this competition is the architectural design of all three cable car stations, i.e. the lower station Podbaba, the intermediate station Troja and the upper station Bohnice, as well as five supports. Two of them will be located on Císařský ostrov (Imperial Island) and three will be located in the sloping terrain of the intermediate station and the upper station Bohnice.

The competition is open to all architects and studios, Czech or foreign, that have experience in designing transport structures. The thing is that in the first step, applicants for participation in the competition must send, together with the completed application, also their portfolio in which there will be at least two transport structures, preferably already completed or in the phase of project documentation for the building permit. Applicants may register in the competition until the end of May. They can submit their applications and portfolios in Czech, Slovak or English. Out of the registered applicants, the jury will select five that will, in the next step, prepare and submit, by the end of July, architectural designs of all stations and supports of the cable car. The competition is organised for the Prague Public Transit Company by the MOBA studio architectural office.

The winner will be decided by an eleven-member jury

Experts, the Prague Public Transit Company, the Capital City of Prague as well as all three affected city districts will be represented in the jury. The jury will be chaired by Mr Arjan Dingsté, director and chief architect of the renowned Amsterdam studio UNStudio, that has been heavily involved in the most iconic projects over the past 19 years, such as the central public transport terminal in Arnhem, northern Holland, metro design in Doha, Qatar, and the headquarters of Booking.com which is currently under construction. He is also the cable car project manager for Gothenburg, Sweden. The following members will also sit in the jury and assess the submitted designs:

Dalibor Hlaváček, current dean of the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University in Prague, who has also been a member of the board of directors of the European Association for Architectural Education since 2015,
Christiane Bausback, CEO of N + P Design company, which designs, among other things, high-tech products for public transport,
Patrik Kotas, leading Czech architect specialising in transport construction and vehicle design, teaching at the Faculty of Architecture and the Faculty of Transportation Sciences of the Czech Technical University in Prague,
Henrieta Nezpěváková, senior designer at the Divan studio, who has been teaching at the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University in Prague since 2012,
Ivan Němec, who participated in projects such as Forum Karlín, the new building of the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University in Prague, ELI Beamlines in Dolní Břežany, the Central Park Prague residential complexes, or the Park Chodov administrative centers, the DRN building and the Špork Palace.

In the jury, the Prague Public Transit Company will be represented by Mr Jan Šurovský, member of the board of directors and technical director of the Prague Public Transit Company – Surface, the Capital City of Prague will be represented by Mr Adam Scheinherr, Deputy Mayor for Transport and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Prague Public Transit Company, city district of Prague 6 will be represented by Ms Eva Smutná, Councillor for Strategic Development and Monument Care, Prague 8 will be represented by Mr Lukáš Vacek, architect and urban planner, from the Department of Spatial Development and Construction, and last but not least Mr Tomáš Bryknar, Mayor of the Prague – Troja district.

The jury will select the winner during August this year and the Prague Public Transit Company will present the individual designs and their authors to the public. The winner will receive a reward of 1.8 million Czech crowns and its task will be to further develop the architectural design into the final form and to provide cooperation during the entire process of the cable car project preparation and its construction until commissioning. The author of the design ranked second will receive a reward of 1.2 million Czech crowns, the third will receive a reward of 800 thousand Czech crowns, the designs in the fourth and fifth place will receive 350 thousand Czech crowns each.

Basic technical and technological solution of the cable car

Podbaba - Troja - Bohnice will be a cable car of the so-called circulating type, i.e. the conveyor rope is always guided in the same direction, while maintaining the same speed. The cabins are detachable from the towing and conveyor ropes and their speed is reduced when they arrive at the stations, so that passengers can get on and off safely.

The cable car will use the three-rope system (so-called 3S system), where the load-bearing and towing functions are separated – support is provided by two ropes instead of one. One rope is therefore towing and two are load bearing. In this way, the support is really strong and allows the cable car to carry large cabins capable of providing more space. The cabins of the three-rope system usually have a capacity of 30 to 35 passengers, including 24 to 28 seats, and are all accessible to people with reduced mobility. They can transport a wheelchair, bicycle, or stroller. The three-rope technology also allows a wider spacing between the supports (up to 3,000 m) and is stable in the wind (comfort up to 100-110 km/h). Depending on the cabin interval, a transport capacity of 2,000 to 4,500 people per hour in one direction is expected.

The cable car will only operate during the day. At night, all cabins will be parked at the Troja service station (intermediate station), where the cable car engine room will also be located. The brake system will always contain two brakes – service and emergency. The system will be obligatorily backed up by an emergency (evacuation) drive, which is independent of the main drive and thus allows the cabins to return to the stations in emergency mode by pulling the rope by an independent device.

Expected parameters of the cable car

Length of the route: 2,240 metres
Speed between stations: 6.5 m/s
Cabin capacity: 35 passengers
System capacity: 2,000 passengers per hour in one direction
Travel time for passengers in the whole section: 6.9 minutes
Operating speed: 19.4 km/h
Number of cabins: 17
Height of supports: No. 1 = 35 m, No. 2 = 44 m, No. 3 and 4 = both 29 m, No. 5 = 25 m.

Contacts for more information:
E-mail: tiskoveoddeleni@dpp.cz