What stage is the bridge at now?

Since the end of May, you can now walk across it without getting your feet wet! We’ve moved on to preparing the final section of the load-bearing structure in the middle of the river, and temporary scaffolding is already rising between the piers. The installation of the supporting structure beneath the formwork will now begin; the reinforcement will be tied over the summer, and the concrete will be poured at the end of the season. The bridge is built in six segments, and the load-bearing deck structure is concreted segment by segment, always from the abutment toward the pier and slightly beyond. The sixth and final segment stands right in the middle of the river. The final finishing works and landscaping will be done in the autumn. It should be ready in spring 2026.

Your design is a nod to the tradition of Prague’s arched bridges and to Cubism. How did this architectural language originate?

The bridge was shaped from the outset through a dialogue between engineers and architects. That's absolutely essential. We worked everything out together. During the architectural competition, we carried out a detailed survey of Prague’s bridges. Across the Vltava—Hlávka Bridge, Štefánik Bridge, Čech Bridge, Charles Bridge, with the partial exception of the Vyšehrad Railway Bridge—they all share several principles, despite being built in different periods, from the Gothic era to Functionalism. They are all arched bridges, meaning structures without superstructures above the deck, and their piers extend across the full width of the bridge. This creates a fascinating effect: from some angles, the bridge appears slender; from others, monumental. And it is these principles that we wanted to build on. The spatial constraints of each riverbank also shaped the final form. In some places, the piers had to fit into very narrow spaces, yet under the deck we needed a broader plane. This led to a slightly different form for the piers on the riverbanks, which resemble pyramids. Overall, I feel the site itself was almost crying out for a cubist form. We simply recorded the possibilities and the broader context of Prague’s bridges.

Artist Krištof Kintera helped design the spaces under the bridge. How did this collaboration unfold?

The international architectural competition from which our winning bridge design emerged had two rounds. There were 45 teams that took part in the first round, with 7 going through to the second. At first, we focused mainly on the bridge itself—it was a typical infrastructure assignment. However, we soon realised we were working in a truly urban environment, especially as individual car traffic was excluded. So we immediately knew that we wanted to work with an artist. We approached several Czech and international artists, and through a mutual friend we connected with Krištof Kintera. We gave him a free hand, and it paid off. He understood the place intuitively and identified exactly the spots that needed attention.

On the Podolí side, there will be an arena for cultural events, children's programmes, readings, and performances. There will be a refreshment kiosk, sculptural works by Kintera, an amphitheatre, a climbing wall, and changing rooms and toilets built into the bridge abutment. Swimmers will have new steps leading into the Vltava, which also offer comfortable seating. Chandeliers with sculptural elements will hang from the bridge deck. Everything will be on the borderline between sculpture and design.

A botanical garden of public lighting will be created on the Zlíchov side. For years, Kintera has been collecting streetlights from dozens of countries around the world. Each will bear a small identifying plaque. They include a lamp from the Vatican, from Bucha in Ukraine, and the iconic streetlight from the Champs-Élysées in Paris. Zdeněk Sendler’s landscaping will complete the environment.

Dvorecký Bridge shows Prague in a new light. For the first time, pedestrians will be able to see Vyšehrad, the Emmaus Monastery, and Prague Castle in a single panoramic view. It is unique—simply walking across the bridge will be an experience in itself.

Are there any technological features of the bridge you would highlight?

The bridge is shaped like a white gateway to the city. Structurally, it is a six-span box-girder bridge made of prestressed reinforced concrete, with a load-bearing structure 331.6 metres long. Its height satisfies the requirement of being one metre above the 2002 flood level. Two piers stand in the river, the others on land. At first glance, the bridge is visually deceptive. Viewed from the river, the structure looks very slender, almost delicate; from the side, it appears much more substantial. This duality is created by the two piers that span the full width of the deck. I’m very fond of this dual reading of the bridge, which shifts depending on the viewpoint.

I also believe this will be one of the last bridges of this scale to be cast entirely in place. In the future, segments will more likely be prefabricated and assembled on-site. It's really a fine piece of craftsmanship. Such as the way the raw concrete was cast into formwork made of unplaned boards. The shapes of each individual pillar are also unique—their heights vary, and the details are always slightly different.

What will the pavements and cycle path look like?

The bridge is 16.5 metres wide, with the carriageway taking up just over 7 metres. It will carry a two-way tram line that can also be used by buses and emergency vehicles. The pedestrian decks on either side are therefore relatively generous, at least 4.5 metres wide on each side, and include a dedicated cycle path.

The project also includes a new tram and bus stop. Will the stops have any special design?

In the end, no, although we did consider it for a while. The bridge itself is entirely white, so we toyed with the idea of giving the stops an unconventional white finish as well. IPR Prague, however, advised against it—and rightly so. We have therefore gone with the standard new city street furniture designed by Olgoj Chorchoj.

How will Žluté lázně connect to the bridge? Right now the site literally turns its back on it.

From the very beginning, it was crucial for us not only what the bridge looks like—its design and execution—but also how it touches the banks: how you access it and how it interacts with its immediate surroundings. The storage and back-of-house areas of Žluté lázně currently face toward Dvorecký Bridge, but that will change. Together with the operator, we have agreed to create one new entrance directly from the bridge and another from the Dvorce stop, while the current central entrance will be removed. I have to say we were very pleasantly surprised by how constructive our negotiations with Žluté lázně were; we really did meet each other halfway. We all sense the potential in the new public space beneath the bridge.

Who will operate the area under the bridge?

That's being addressed now. The public space under the bridge needs a manager—both technically (cleaning and maintenance) and in terms of programming and day-to-day operations. Some of the elements have the status of artworks and will fall under Prague City Gallery. Technical management will likely be handled either by Technologie hl. m. Prahy or by Žluté lázně.

The site was formerly home to a scout boating group. What will happen to their building?

It belongs to the children’s boating group ŠÁN, which will return here once the bridge is completed. We also designed their new clubhouse. In doing so, we drew on the language of small, poetic historic structures—inspired, for instance, by the wooden boathouse of the Czech Yacht Club. The black building with its white-framed windows is designed in deliberate contrast to the white bridge. It will be built from the same wooden planks used for the bridge’s formwork, except that we plan to char them. The charred black boards will also appear at the new entrance to Žluté lázně.

It sounds as though one bridge has triggered the transformation of a much wider area.

It’s become a kind of small, never-ending story. Our work doesn’t end with the bridge itself. On the Smíchov side, a new triangular square has emerged between Trigema’s Lihovar development and the bridge, so we began working on the urban design, landscape and surface treatments, and selecting the materials. There was no cycling connection where the viaduct crosses the railway toward the small church in Zlíchov, so we added a proposal for an additional pedestrian and cycling footbridge. On the Zlíchov embankment there is an old filling station, where we managed to negotiate a model conversion of the station into a café. The self-service pumps and charging points for electric vehicles will remain, but the site will now include a gastro venue that will connect directly to our garden of lights.

What other bridges are you working on or have worked on?

We took part in the competitive dialogue for the Výtoň Railway Bridge, where we did not make it through to the second round. On the other hand, we placed third in the competition for a footbridge in Hlásná Třebáň. We also recently completed a footbridge at Rajská zahrada. We are now building a road bridge to Beroun. So bridges and footbridges take up quite a bit of our work. We also know Podolí very well—we have designed several villa-style houses there. As it happens, I live there myself, so I’m genuinely looking forward to everything being finished and to walking under Dvorecký Bridge in person.