In Ostrava, the next phase of the concert hall construction has begun with a quarterly delay

Ostrava – The construction of the new concert hall in Ostrava, designed by American architect Steven Holl, is entering its next phase. The contractor today received the construction site from the city to continue the second phase of construction. While the focus so far has been on excavating the construction pit and laying the foundation, work is expected to gradually move above ground. The start of the second phase of construction is approximately three months delayed. The reason was necessary adjustments during the foundation to meet the requirement for its settling. This was stated today by Deputy Mayor Břetislav Riger (Ostravak). The entire project is estimated to cost around four billion crowns.

"The problem was that the settling of the entire building was not aligning as expected. The construction is enormous and has a huge weight. The condition for its settling given to us by the architect is ten millimeters, which is a critical concern," said Riger. However, upon recalculating the statics, it became apparent that the building could theoretically settle slightly more than the designated limit of ten millimeters. Necessary adjustments had to be made.

"When founding on piles, friction occurs on their surface; we actually increased the area of this friction by spacing the piles further apart in individual groups," Riger said. The footprint of the building and other parameters do not change. According to the Deputy Mayor, these are only changes beneath the actual foundation slab of the structure. Riger explained that after the first phase, the construction company left the site and handed it back to the city, which today returned it to the contractor, who can now continue with the next phase of the project.

Riger stated that it was more advantageous for the city to resolve the complication before the start of the second phase of construction. According to him, delaying the construction means lower costs than possibly stopping it in the next phase of construction. Currently, it will be necessary to carry out some tests, such as the load-bearing capacity of certain beams and other essential tests. It is anticipated that work in the construction pit will continue before the end of the year, and next year the builders should be above ground.

The contract for the renovation of the House of Culture of the City of Ostrava, associated with the completion of the concert hall, was won by a consortium of companies that offered a price of around 2.8 billion crowns. However, the city expects that the entire project, including equipment and technology, will amount to approximately four billion crowns. The city has been saving money for the concert hall in a special fund. The main financial source is a two-billion crown loan from the European Investment Bank, along with a non-repayable financial grant from the European Commission amounting to half a billion crowns, which is directly earmarked for the concert hall. Another 300 million crowns is to be contributed for the construction of the hall by the Moravian-Silesian Region and 600 million crowns by the state.

The design of the concert hall in Ostrava was presented in July 2019 when the results of the largest architectural competition in the modern history of the city were announced. The authors of the winning design are the studios Steven Holl Architects from New York and Architecture Acts from Prague. The American magazine Architizer ranked the project among the ten most anticipated buildings in the world in 2021. The new complex will be used as a musical, cultural, production, or educational facility and will also be the headquarters of the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava. It is expected to be completed in 2028.

The concert hall is to have 1,300 seats. The project also includes a theater hall with a capacity of 490 seats, a chamber multifunctional hall with 515 seats, a lecture multifunctional hall with 120 seats, and an educational center with 200 seats. The complex will also include a recording studio, a restaurant, a café, and other spaces. The city has attempted to build a new hall six times in the past, initially in the 1860s, most recently in 1969.