The Palacký University is completing a new building with a unique shading system

Olomouc – The vast construction of a new building for the education of students at the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Health Sciences of Palacký University (UP) on Tabulový vrch in Olomouc is nearing completion. The university's landmark on Hněvotínská street has begun to attract the attention of passersby due to the red metal triangles on the facade of the building, which will form a shading system. The builders are set to install a total of about 3000 of them, the university stated on its website. Students are expected to start classes in the new premises in September 2026, at the beginning of the next academic year, said Jiří Vévoda, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at UP, today to ČTK.

Construction began in September 2023. Builders are already installing red triangles made of perforated sheet metal on the facade of the building, having installed roughly half of them so far. "By the end of summer, the shading system will be completed. At the same time, we are working on finishing the green roof, during August we will lay the substrate on it, and later, when the weather permits, we will plant the actual plants," stated Stanislav Chvatík, the site manager from GEMO, the general contractor for the construction, on the university's website. He added that work is also underway to finish the interiors of the building.

The new facilities are already eagerly awaited by the deans of both faculties, who both deemed them essential at the start of construction. According to the Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, the new building will allow them to prepare more students for future professions in non-medical healthcare fields. "In the first years, we are enrolling nearly 450 students, which significantly contributes as one of the largest educators to reducing the shortage of non-medical healthcare personnel in the labor market. Teaching will take place in a modern simulation center, and from experience, we know that the use of modern simulators in education significantly increases the success of studies," said the dean to ČTK.

The costs, including the equipping of the new facilities for students, will exceed 640 million crowns, with two-thirds covered by a subsidy from the state budget. The modern and eye-catching building on Hněvotínská street will feature an auditorium for nearly 400 people, spaces for practical training of future doctors and healthcare workers on the latest simulators, as well as a canteen with a capacity of 2000 diners daily.

The new building, designed by the Brno-based Ateliér Velehradský, is rising in a former military area along Hněvotínská street. The modern four-story building with a green roof is designed as a five-part structure with classrooms around the perimeter and hygiene and communication cores in the central part.