Will Ostrava have a Black Cube?

September 17 at 18:00, Fiducia Club

The architectural competition for the new headquarters of the Moravian-Silesian Science Library in Ostrava was announced by the regional office in June 2004. The winning design was for a library in the shape of a so-called "black cube." Its creators, architects Ladislav Kuba and Tomáš Pilař, who won the prestigious Grand Prix architects main award two months ago, also prepared the complete project documentation, and the construction received building permission, along with 600 million crowns from European Union funds. However, the current regional leadership rejected this winning and fully designed library project, claiming it to be a megalomaniacal project with inflated construction and future operational costs.
In June of this year, in response to the actions of the Regional Office, the "Civic Initiative for the Black Cube in Ostrava" (www.cernakostka.cz) was formed, aiming to realize the winning and fully designed project. The realization of this building is also being advocated by the Czech Chamber of Architects.

When will the provisional arrangement end, in which the science library has resided since its establishment in the 1950s? What are the reasons for the rejection of the completed project? What will happen to the funds allocated for the library? What is the significance of libraries in the age of the internet? Will Ostrava have a world-class library or another temporary solution?

These and other questions will be addressed by the following guests at the public debate:
Ladislav Kuba - architect, co-author of the winning design
Zbyněk Stanjura - mayor of the city of Opava, member of the council of the Moravian-Silesian region for ODS
Martin Strakoš - architectural historian, initiator of the petition for the Black Cube
Milena Vitoulová - regional chairwoman of the Czech Chamber of Architects
Svatomír Recman - deputy governor of the Moravian-Silesian region for culture and social affairs
The debate will be moderated by Martin Tomášek, a teacher at Ostrava University.