The competition for the transformation of the Ostrava slaughterhouse was won by the studio Petr Hájek Architekti

Ostrava - The international architectural competition for the transformation of the historical building of the former slaughterhouse near the center of Ostrava was won by the studio Petr Hájek Architekti from Prague. The city's councilors approved the winner, selected by the jury, at their meeting today, said Andrea Vojkovská, spokeswoman for the city hall. The building is set to become the home of the city gallery PLATO Ostrava.

The city initially invited ten architectural firms, five of them directly and another five based on submitted portfolios. Ultimately, eight studios participated in the competition. The winner belongs to the group of directly approached firms.

"I consider it a great success that we managed to prepare the competition in such a way that we have a winning proposal chosen within three months of the announcement. This is roughly six weeks earlier than we originally expected. I am pleased that the jury reached a consensus after an intense and substantive debate over the submitted proposals, and we can start preparing the next steps," stated Mayor Tomáš Macura (ANO).

According to Vojkovská, the jury described the winning proposal as a sensitive and impressive project that best met the requirements and needs of the gallery and aligns with the vision that Ostrava has for the future.

"When I proposed to the city leadership exactly two years ago to acquire and reconstruct the historical slaughterhouse for the city gallery of contemporary art, I never dreamed that we would reach such a point in historically record time - at least in the context of the Czech Republic. I believe the outcome of the competition is a great satisfaction," said the director of the PLATO Ostrava gallery and jury chairman Marek Pokorný. All competition proposals will be exhibited from mid-May in the building of the former hobby market Bauhaus, which the city purchased along with the historical slaughterhouse, for a total of 80 million crowns.

The municipal slaughterhouse in the city center was built in 1881. However, in 1994, the municipal district of Moravská Ostrava and Přívoz sold the two-hectare land along with the slaughterhouse to the company Bauhaus for more than 38 million crowns. The company built its hobby market in close proximity to the slaughterhouse.

However, the slaughterhouse deteriorated and was never repaired, and the store later also ceased to operate. The city has long sought to regain the protected slaughterhouse. According to the latest expert report, the value of the site is over 90 million crowns.