Edenia opens near Prague 2026

Edenia opens near Prague: over 5,000 m² of green experience on the city's north-eastern edge

After years of planning, September 2026 saw the opening of a garden centre on the north-eastern edge of Prague of a kind Central Europe does not see often. Edenia combines a generous outdoor growing environment with an indoor store built entirely around experience. Garden Center Advice contributed to the customer routing and the allocation of the product categories, and supplied the shop fittings through long-standing partner Datec. The project was delivered on behalf of Van den Dool Projecten.

A family business taking its next step

Edenia is not an anonymous investor project but the logical next move of an entrepreneur who knows his market. In Horní Počernice, Jan Drápalík built a garden centre that became a household name in the Prague region — and eventually ran out of square metres. The new site sits only a short drive from the old one, on the edge of Nehvizdy, set in green surroundings and easily reached from the main roads into Prague.

That proximity is deliberate. Moving to a different part of the city means building a catchment area from scratch; relocating within the same catchment carries the existing customer base along while making possible the step up in format that the old site simply could not accommodate.

Routing as the backbone of the design

In an experience centre of this size, the customer route is not a detail — it carries the entire concept. From the first sketches, one principle guided the work: customers should never have to wonder where they are, yet should always remain curious about what lies beyond the next block.

That translates into a main route touching the full sales floor without ever feeling like an imposed circuit, with resting points, framed views and sightlines that keep the transition between inside and outside present throughout. Cross-connections give the mission shopper a short cut, while the browsing visitor naturally completes the full loop. The result is a store that feels big without becoming hard to read.

The right category in the right place

The second layer beneath the design is category allocation: which product group earns which position, how many metres, and in what sequence. Those decisions drive spend per visit and the seasonal rhythm of the store. Impulse-sensitive and seasonal categories sit where footfall is highest, while destination categories — the ones customers come for on purpose — sit deeper in the store and activate the entire route.

Space for growth has been reserved on purpose. A format filled to the last metre on opening day has no room left to respond to what the market will ask for in the years ahead. That flexibility is built into the space plan.

Shop fittings by Datec

The shopfitting was delivered by Datec, a supplier we have worked with for years. The system is robust enough for the heavy and often wet loads of a garden centre, and flexible enough to rearrange shelves, trays and display elements every season without touching the base structure. For a format that changes its face four times a year, that is not a luxury but a precondition.

The balance between green and indoor experience

What ultimately sets Edenia in Prague apart is its balance. Many new garden centres implicitly pick a side: either a strong outdoor offer with a functional indoor store, or an atmospheric indoor store in which plants play a supporting role. Here both worlds carry equal weight, and that is what makes the difference. The living green gives the building its character; the indoor experience gives visitors a reason to come outside the planting season — and to stay longer.

Prague gains a genuinely strong garden centre

With Edenia's opening, the Prague region gains a garden centre that stands comparison internationally. For us it was a long-haul project with a client who took the time to let the plans mature — and that is exactly what you can see in the finished result.