Omega Palace Department Store

The Omega Palace Department Store on Svobody Square in Brno is part of a block of big, neo-renaissance and baroque buildings and interwoven with internal passages. The design links up with this structure via a horizontal passage that runs through the store and connects the square with the neighbouring Alfa Palace. Escalators in the central hall connect the various floors. The elevation facing the square is a modern interpretation of the neighbouring buildings: the opalescent glass suggests mass, an effect that is reinforced by the fact that the glass is not a single smooth surface, but is punctuated by storey-high windows with deep reveals. Inside, mass gives way to openness. In keeping with the horizontally and vertically connected structure, spaces are visually linked to one another by the use of clear glass for the balustrades, internal walls, floor inserts and lighting strips.