Zaha Hadid Architects has designed a high-rise building in the Czech Republic adjacent to one of Prague’s major railway stations. Named Masaryčka, the scheme has been envisioned as “a welcoming gateway to the city for suburban and domestic rail passengers as well as those using the express rail link that is currently under construction to Prague’s international airport.”

According to the architects, the complex’s form is designed to establish a dialogue with the architecture and urbanism of Prague’s Old Town. Containing office and retail uses, the 300,000-square-foot development incorporates seven stories within its eastern section and nine stories at its western end.

On the exterior, fins within the double-skin facade contribute to solar shading in the summer and “transform the project’s horizontal composition to the verticality of its western facade facing the spires of the Old Town.” A cascade of terraces divides the development’s two wings, while additional terracing on the eastern facade gives every office floor direct access to outdoor spaces.

The scheme is topped by communal roof gardens, while a hybrid ventilation system is supported by a high-efficiency plant with waste heat recovery systems. Outside, a landscape strategy uses local species of plants, shrubs, and trees irrigated by the development of a rainwater collection system.

News of the development comes in the same month that Zaha Hadid Architects completed the Zhuhai Jinwan Civic Arts Centre in southern China. In October, the firm’s Chengdu Science Fiction Museum opened to the public, while in September, the firm won a major cultural district competition in China with large ‘feather’ roofs.