Kolín will announce a competition for a new library building by the end of the year

Kolín – Kolín could have a project for a new library in the area of the Kolín castle in 2023. The start of construction will depend on the announcement of a grant call from the European funds IROP, from which the city intends to draw resources in the tens of millions. By the end of the year, the city will announce an international architectural competition, and the library could be built within five years at the latest. Today, Kolín mayor Michael Kašpar (Change for Kolín) informed ČTK about this.

The Kolín city library is located on Husova Street in the building of the former Czech Savings Bank. According to the library director Libuše Vodičková, the new building should also function as a community center where people gather. "We definitely need to increase our capacity; the storage spaces are absolutely inadequate, we don’t even have a third of the collection available for free selection, the library essentially operates like a retail store. There is also a lack of space for relaxation and a more airy environment; we currently have one exhibition hall where we must fit for events," she stated. Each department currently has one or two rooms, which according to Vodičková should be connected in the new building.

The brief for the upcoming architectural competition anticipates that the new library will complement the area of the Kolín castle in the gap of the so-called barley lofts on Kovářská Street. City architect David Mateásko is preparing the materials, especially the geodetic survey of the land, assembling the construction program, and an independent part of the jury.

"In the meantime, we have provided the brief to students – graduates at the Faculty of Architecture of CTU, who will test the parameters and possibilities of the competition brief with their student projects. We can therefore look forward to an unconventional academic interpretation of this task in the near future. We are intensively cooperating with representatives from the Kolín library on the brief. We expect that during the summer, the jury could meet for its inaugural meeting," Mateásko told ČTK.