A visionary of Czech development who is not afraid to break established conventions and introduce bold, often controversial elements into architecture. The founder of Trigema, under whose leadership the company has grown into a development and construction group with a billion-dollar turnover and dozens of projects to their credit. He should be satisfied by now, but Marcel Soural, a strategist who goes for the win, is still tirelessly looking for new opportunities and possibilities. And he is aware that while doing so, he will irritate both experts and laymen.
In collaboration with the Black n’ Arch Studio, the head of the Trigema Group, Marcel Soural, does not hesitate to come up with truly unusual ideas. And as is often the case in art, he soon experiences a huge wave of enthusiasm as well as a large dose of resistance. One of these is the residential project Fragment with installations of sculptures by David Černý, which have been installed in Karlín, Prague, since the summer of 2023. Or Trifot, an eye-catching and long-legged sculpture by the same artist, which looks down on the events at the Nové Butovice underground station from a height of 12 m. Strong emotions also accompany the project that Trigema is currently preparing. And if it turns out as Marcel Soural hopes, in a few years’ time, things are going to get interesting in Nové Butovice as a skyscraper with a shipwreck will rise to a height of 135 m. “We do not want to build ordinary houses and copy what has already been done, but turn the city into an open-air museum. Architecture should, after all, reflect the times we live in,” says Marcel Soural, a developer, whose company is currently also involved in the fundamental transformation of Smíchov brownfields. At the intersection of Strakonická and Nádražní Streets, they are building the Smíchov Distillery, a new multifunctional district with apartments, services and restaurants and spaces for leisure and art.
In terms of area, number of apartments and investment amount, which exceeds CZK 4.5 billion, the Smíchov Distillery is currently your largest project. What stage is its construction at?
The first stage – North – has been completed for about two years and all apartments are sold out. Currently, we have the Central and South parts under construction, which we will complete gradually. We should be completely finished by mid-2027.
How many apartments will be built in the given area?
A total of 550. The first stage will cover 245 apartments and the second one a little more. Almost half of the total number are apartments intended for rent.
So, you are slowly heading to the final. Which part of the complex represents the biggest challenge for you?
It is certainly the construction of the factory in the southern corner of the land, which will be built on the site of the original one and will be characteristic of its ‘saw-tooth’ roof. And then there will also be a 56 m high residential chimney.
Why is building a chimney, even a residential one? Is it a challenge?
If we were building an ordinary chimney, there would probably be nothing complicated about it. But, together with David Černý’s Black n’ Arch Studio, which co-owns Trigema, we came up with the idea that when viewed from the outside, the chimney would look as if it were falling apart from the bottom up. However, to make it look really believable and suitable for living in it, it is a very complicated matter from a technical point of view. We discovered the system that could make this possible in Spain. So, we now go there and consult the manufacturer of the special cladding, looking together for the most suitable solutions.
As you can see, you are not making things easy for yourself. I thought that the significant element of the Distillery would be Flaška (Bottle) and the reconstructed Varna (Mash house), where the Musoleum of David Černý is located…
Not at all. Flaška will not be nearly as prominent as the residential chimney. However, this ‘crumbling’ chimney is not the only chimney in the Distillery. There is another one in the middle of the complex and is a listed monument. Apart from that, we are planning to install a lift shaft with a glass observation cabin, which will rise above the chimney, from where there will be a nice view of the surroundings areas.
Speaking of the view – how are you doing with yet another iconic building, Top Tower in Nové Butovice? Once completed, it should become the tallest building in the Czech Republic and, thanks to the observation platform at the top, provide a view of almost the entire city of Prague.
We have been applying for a building permit for some time now and I expect it to be issued sometime during March or April. After that, we naturally expect appeals, which – I dare say – we will resolve within a year. So, in the first half of 2027, we might be able to start construction.
What will be the total investment costs for its construction and the amount of your contribution to the city?
The costs of building Top Tower will be around CZK 4 billion. Ourselves, we will contribute to Prague 13 and the municipality approximately CZK 76 million.
If everything goes as planned, when should Top Tower be completed?
The construction, which will be really demanding in terms of construction and technology, will take approximately three and a half years. We were looking forward to celebrating Trigema’s 35th birthday with its completion (the company was founded in May 1994 – editor’s note), but it is already clear that we will not be able to make it.
In about five years’ time, there will be a 125-meter-high skyscraper with a shipwreck on its side rising above Prague, being 10 m higher than the building. How long has this idea been brewing inside you?
When I discovered the land years ago, the city was using it as a carpark for 60 cars. This seemed like utter nonsense to me, considering the potential of the place. So, to put it very briefly, after many negotiations with the Prague City Council, we exchanged the land for another one and added a considerable additional payment and a project we had prepared for a parking house for about 360 cars. Then I gave David Černý’s Black n’ Arch Studio more or less free hand, of course with regard to regulations, to create a study for a house that could be build there.
How did it turn out?
Seven variants emerged out of it. They all were imaginative and original, but either they did not meet with a positive response from the interested parties, or I did not like them. Moreover, I imagined something much more daring for the given location.
And you probably succeeded in that in the end. The responds that the somewhat post-apocalyptic-looking Top Tower with the shipwreck evoked among people are extremely polarized – from enthusiastic to radically rejecting.
You are right. But we enjoy doing things differently, originally, and in a memorable way.
Are the unmissable works of art in your projects a good marketing tool?
Of course, they support the Trigema brand and correspond with our claim: Developer of different. But it is probably impossible to say that we would sell or rent apartments more easily thanks to them. Because of these ‘little gags’, we build at much higher cost than most developers. So, it is logical that our products are consequently also noticeably more expensive. Moreover, they also require a certain amount of imagination and foresight from the clients.
What do you mean?
I will explain it using the example of Distillery. We are building a unique multifunctional district in a location that – frankly speaking – will definitely not look attractive for some time to come. So, our marketing and sales team must be able to present this part of Prague’s Smíchov to clients in a way that they can look at it in a five to ten-year horizon, trust us as a developer and perceive the potential and added value of the place. When all the projects that we and our development colleagues are building in this area are completed, it will be a great location comparable to Karlín.
From the perspective of residential function, the Distillery area represents a combination of rental and owner-occupied housing. In Top Tower, as in Fragment in Prague 8, there will only be apartments intended for rent and will remain in the ownership of Trigema. Why?
I am convinced that it is not advisable to split ownership in large buildings, which are also something completely exceptional and iconic. It is then difficult to agree with the co-owners on management, maintenance, repairs. And in the case of Top Tower, it would be even more complicated. A high-rise building with a statue of a ship will be very demanding in terms of operation and economic sustainability.
At the end of 2025, you founded Trigema Fund SICAV, through which you plan to finance the construction of your other projects. What was the impetus for establishing the fund?
We are preparing many other projects that are – like the Distillery on the Smíchov brownfield – very demanding in terms of investment. At the moment, there are about five of them and each of them is worth some CZK 4 billion. In a standard situation, that is with the current method of financing, we would be forced to build them gradually. That is why we decided to establish a fund of qualified investors, which will allow us to implement such demanding projects faster. One could say that it was also the situation prevailing in the domestic investment environment, that is that investors’ interest is largely shifting from office buildings to residential buildings, that also contributed to the change in our approach to financing.
A significant part of the fund is to be made up of your projects. Which ones have you already put in?
In the first phase, we put in 64 rental apartments from the Smíchov Distillery North project, the Science and Technology Park in Roztoky near Prague, and the apartments and a bistro in the Dog in Dock winery in Veselí nad Moravou. By the end of this January, the fund managed properties worth approximately CZK 657 million, of which 97% was our share.
I assume that this is just the beginning…
The fund has been open to investors since this year, and we have been in intensive negotiations with the bank that should distribute the fund through their private banking for some time. The ways in which funds are distributed are extremely important for each fund. Within five years, we plan to reach CZK 3.5 billion and, in the longer term, gradually rank among the top 10 domestic investment funds. We would like to gradually include our other key projects in the fund, both those related to residential construction and leisure activities. Apart from Top Tower and the large-scale residential project at Invalidovna in Prague, we also have big plans for Rokytnice nad Jizerou and are also planning to venture into one town in Central Bohemia.
Is there anything that makes your fund different from others?
Our fund’s strategy lies in the fact that, unlike most others, it will primarily contain our own key projects. In the long term, we would like to hold a thirty percent stake in it, which should be a signal to investors and the market that we are serious about the fund and its performance.
You have been working in the industry for over three decades. Your son Vít manages the Flatzone project, while your daughter Natálie heads the legal department of the Trigema Group. It seems that, unlike many company founders, you have your successors taken care of. How does that feel?
Great. And do you know what is best about it? That I did not have to force any of them to work at Trigema. They see it as their own choice, a logical and completely natural step. Like me, they see meaning and future in this work. That is why last year, we established a trust fund into which we put the entire group, and Vít and Natálie are its administrators and my successors.
Jana Hrabětová / Photo of M. Soural: Lukáš Bíba / Visualization and photos of projects: Trigema Archive