Ostrava now has proposals for a new concert hall

Ostrava - Ostrava now has proposals for the design of a new concert hall, the construction of which is a priority for the city leadership. The competition jury will begin reviewing the proposals on February 18. It is not yet entirely clear whether all the contacted foreign studios submitted their proposals. However, the number of received envelopes would suggest that they did. The mayor Tomáš Macura (ANO) said this to ČTK today.

The city announced the architectural competition for the construction of the concert hall last August. Initially, it directly contacted three world-renowned studios, namely the team of American architect Steven Holl, the Polish Konior Studio, which designed the concert hall in Katowice, and the Danish firm Henning Larsen Architects, which designed the home of the philharmonic with a hall in Reykjavik. Later, from another 31 interested parties, the expert jury selected three more studios based on references and submitted portfolios: Architecture Studio from France, the German Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos, and the Dutch Van Dongen - Koschuch Architects and Planners. It is not ruled out that all the studios submitted their proposals. The city will know for sure in about two weeks.

"Last week on Friday, the deadline expired for the six invited architectural firms to submit their competition designs for the new concert hall. The competition is anonymous and the envelopes remain sealed until the jury meeting, so at this moment we know that six envelopes arrived, but we cannot claim with certainty that these are six proposals from those specific six studios yet," stated Macura.

The new concert hall, with a capacity exceeding 1,000 seats, is expected to cost about 1.5 billion crowns excluding VAT. It will be located next to the House of Culture of the city of Ostrava. The city requires that the building be exceptional not only from an architectural standpoint but also have top-notch acoustics. The hall will serve as a base for the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava. The orchestra currently resides and performs in the cultural house built between 1956 and 1961 in the spirit of modern classicism, which does not meet the demands for modern concert facilities.

The mayor previously stated that the competition should be two rounds. Two, at most three proposals should advance to the second round. Along with the city, the region and the state are expected to participate in the financing of the concert hall's construction.