Golden Angel

The Golden Angel (Czech: Zlatý Anděl) is an administrative complex situated in Prague. The designer was French architect Jean Nouvel.^[1]

Golden Angel
Zlatý Anděl
Front view
General information
Type	office complex
Location	Anděl crossroad
Address	Plzeňská 344/1, Praha 5 - Smíchov
Town or city	Prague
Country	Czech Republic
Coordinates	50°04′18.606″N 14°24′13.763″E
Construction started	1999
Completed	2000
Cost	1 billion CZK
Client	ING Real Estate
Owner	ING Real Estate
Technical details
Floor count	7
Floor area	20,700 m2 (222,800 sq ft)
Lifts/elevators	2
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Jean Nouvel
Architecture firm	Ateliér 8000

The structure is located in the immediate vicinity of The Angel Crossroad (Křižovatka Anděl) which was named after The Golden Angel's Pharmacy (Lékárna U Zlatého Anděla). The pharmacy as well as its symbol - a gilded statue of an angel - was demolished in 1980 to make a room for new subway station.

Origin

Nouvel started The Golden Angel project in 1994. The construction was launched five years later and the complex was completed in November 2000.^[1] The exclusive investor of the building is the ING Real Estate company.

Exterior

Detail

The Golden Angel is curve-shaped and edges are rounded. The technology of the layered facade allows it to vary the building's appearance during the daytime. The glassed facades bear passages from the writings of notable authors who had been creating in Prague: Jiří Orten, Konstantin Biebl, Franz Kafka, Guillaume Apollinaire, Rainer Maria Rilke and Gustav Meyrink.

A picture of an angel-protector, inspired by a Wim Wenders' film Wings of Desire, looks down upon the golden Angel crossroads, floating among clouds.

A unique technology was developed for portraying clouds and the Angel. The graphics are printed on an advert foil and cut into millimetre-sized dots, which are stuck onto the facade in a density of 80,000/m². The number of dots on the complex is reaching 150 millions; the printing and cutting process ran uninterrupted for over 7 months.