Golden Angel, Administrative building in Smíchov, Czech Republic.
Golden Angel is a ten-storey administrative complex on the Anděl crossroads in Smíchov, Prague 5, built 1999–2000 to Jean Nouvel's design. Its irregular rounded forms have a projecting corner and receding upper floors, clad in layered metallised glass. On the corner a large angel figure is formed from nearly 150 million tiny dots of translucent foil, with fragments of texts by Prague writers scattered across the whole facade.
The name refers to a former pharmacy that once displayed a golden angel statue at this spot, which gave the square its current name, Náměstí Andel. The statue was removed in 1980 during subway construction, and the present building was later put up on the same site.
The glass facade carries fragments of texts by Franz Kafka, Gustav Meyrink, Jiří Orten, Guillaume Apollinaire, Rainer Maria Rilke and Konstantin Biebl, all writers who worked in Prague. The fragments are scattered irregularly across the whole surface, not placed at eye level, and the building's appearance shifts with the lighting.
The building sits directly above the Andel metro station, making it easy to reach on foot from the exit. The surrounding streets are heavily used during the day, especially at rush hour, so foot traffic around the building can be dense.
The angel on the corner is not painted but assembled from millimetre-sized dots of translucent foil, 80,000 per square metre, printed and cut in one uninterrupted run of over seven months. The figure and its clouds were inspired by Wim Wenders's film Wings of Desire.
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