PA-COOL

Every piece of exceptional architecture has a tumultuous past that is still present in every stone or concrete block.

The present day Prague Congress Centre conceals the former Palace of Culture. It was constructed over a five-year period (1976–1981), at the height of the 20 years of so called „normalisation“ under the communist regime, following the occupation of the former Czechoslovakia. Huge Palace with 50 elevators, and a puzzle of 70 meeting rooms, clubs, and large halls, including the giant Assembly Hall with 2 764 seats, was used for the communist party’s general and regular meetings, and therefore disliked or even hated by „normal“ people. Its awkward, wide, turtle-like architecture in neo-functionalist style was frequently referred to as “Moby Dick” (because of its enormous size), or “Massholder“ (in the sense of a gasholder, Lidojem in Czech), or „Pakul” (as the name’s abbreviation).

I nick-named it Pa-cool, as I can still feel the freezing draught of Siberian wind blowing through the long miles of corridors connecting the labyrinth of separate floors, halls and rooms of this portentous building. The cool air has been reinforced in the inner design with vast spaces, low ceilings and many grandiose chandeliers, heavy furniture, marble and wooden panels, tapestries, glass objects and other artistic decoration overflowing in snobbish elegance, even though created by the top Czech artists of the late 20th century. The only natural delight in this cool place is the breath-taking view of the wide panorama of Prague castle and the townscape which can be admired from its front glass walls.

The location close to the Nusel Bridge, which is frequently referred to as a suicide bridge and has a busy motorway across the valley, as well as the space’s megalomaniacal scale all contribute to the place’s spell continuing to hold.

Haruna Honcoop is a Czech-Japanese filmmaker, graduate of the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU), where she is currently a PhD candidate writing about Chinese independent documentary film. Her film essay Built to Last – Relics of Communist-Era Architecture (2017) was awarded the Archfilm Lund festival prize. Her short film True or False (2016) won a prize at This Human World festival in Vienna. Olympic Halftime, a documentary film that deals with the architecture and urbanism of Olympic cities in Beijing, Tokyo, Paris and Athens, as well as the German-French co-production Annexions will both premiere in 2023. She is currently developing a new documentary film I Am Taiwanese about the political identities of Taiwanese and Eastern Europeans.