The competition for the concert hall was won by an American studio

Ostrava - The American studio of architect Steven Holl from New York has won the architectural competition for the design of a new concert hall in Ostrava. The construction costs, which will take place near the House of Culture of the City of Ostrava, are estimated at 1.5 billion crowns excluding VAT. A contract for the preparation of project documentation will be signed with the winner in autumn, Mayor Tomáš Macura (ANO) told journalists today. Construction is set to begin in 2022, and the hall is expected to be completed in 2024. Out of seven jury members, six supported the winning proposal.

"It's great news for Ostrava that the author of the design is precisely the studio Steven Holl Architects plus Architecture Acts, which has a number of projects of top global quality to its credit. The American studio succeeded best in connecting the existing cultural house with the new concert hall," said Macura.

The hall represents the casing of a musical instrument. "It is a structure that is lifted from the back part of the park through the original building to the front part. There is a significant use of steel and glazing, particularly in the front part, which communicates very well with the street 28th of October," said Deputy Mayor Zuzana Bajgarová (ANO). She added that it will be possible to observe movement within the building from the outside. The same concept applies to the opposite side of the building.

The Mayor reminded that Ostrava has been striving for the hall for nearly 60 years. While 13 concert halls have been built in neighboring Poland in recent years, according to the mayor, the last one in the Czech Republic was the Rudolfinum. Macura added that Brno and Prague are also currently seeking to build a concert hall.

The construction of the hall should be financed by the city together with the region and the state based on a signed memorandum. Ostrava is saving for the construction in a special fund, where it has approximately a quarter of a billion crowns.

"Why did we choose this design? It was simply the best. It is an amazing architectural work that very well considers the relationship between the old building and the new, the relationship between the city of Ostrava and the park behind the existing building. I believe that the winning project will also be an emblematic piece for Ostrava that will revive it," said the jury chairman and architect Krzysztof Ingarden.

According to the director of the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava, Jan Žemla, the body has lived in provisional conditions since its inception. "The fact that a new concert hall will be built completely shifts the orchestra and culture in the city into entirely different dimensions. For the orchestra as such, it means that it can work much better with sound, its strengths will be highlighted, and quality will improve," Žemla stated.

The architectural competition for the construction of the concert hall, the largest in the history of Ostrava, was announced by the city last August. Initially, it directly approached three world-renowned studios, specifically the team of American architect Holl, the Polish Konior Studio, and the Danish studio Henning Larsen Architects. Later, from the other 31 candidates, the expert jury selected three additional 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.