River Park Modřany II, Buildings C+E

River Park Modřany II in Prague will be a residential complex with 800 flats, located by the River Vltava, next to the Hodkovičky golf club and Prague’s main cycle route. The site is currently being transformed into an attractive residential neighbourhood with in environmentally friendly buildings. The area, a popular part of Prague, will be given a boost by the 800 new residences, which will offer an attractive lifestyle in a user-friendly complex with a very small environmental footprint. The building contract for two 13-storey buildings with 236 flats was awarded to PORR in spring 2020. Not long before that, the project had still been hanging in the balance, as the steady rise of construction prices called its economic feasibility into question. Faced with this uncertainty, project developer Horizon Holding concluded that the project could only go ahead if building costs did not exceed a certain upper limit. Then PORR’s recently established project planning department stepped in. Using the original plans as their basis, the team systematically revised the project using building information modelling, or BIM, and managed to reach this ambitious goal. Autodesk Revit was used for the plans and Autodesk BIM 360 for execution, a system that enables PORR to distribute the project costs efficiently. PORR proposed a number of revisions, such as optimising the shafts, stairwells and utility conduits, which (among other things) increased the saleable living space. The team also revised the plans for the building technology, structure and structural engineering. In all, PORR’s work saved the client 3 million euros.

The contract was for the second stage of the River Park Modřany II residential project, which would start concurrently with completion of the first stage. One of the big challenges came from the structurally connected building elements that would be for shared use, such as the underground parking. These had to be taken into account from the very start of the planning stage. Another issue was that one of the residential towers were being built close to a railway. To avoid transmitting vibrations from the trains into the residences, they were constructed on vibration absorbers, which meant stringent requirements for the quality of the in-situ concrete structures – however, these presented no problems for PORR’s internal department for in-situ concrete construction.

By making extensive use of BIM, the PORR experts succeeded in developing a viable solution to allay the client’s fears that the project might not be economically viable. Close collaboration between PORR departments is an important factor in keeping the project on schedule for completion on time and to the satisfaction of the future flat owners.