In the regulatory plan of the Automatic Mills, three competitive teams will compete

Pardubice - Pardubice will select a processor of the regulatory plan for the future development of the listed Automatic Mills and its surrounding area from three teams. The city hall has announced a competitive workshop, which 16 groups from the Czech Republic and Slovakia have applied for. The jury has selected teams composed of the studios D3A, re:architects of Michal Kuzemenský, and UNIT Architects.

"After several meetings with property owners in the area, they will develop conceptual studies with the basic idea of where the location should be headed. The winner of the competition will become the developer of the binding regulatory plan," said ČTK Karolína Koupalová from the Department of the Chief Architect of the Pardubice City Hall.

The jury consists of three independent experts. The chairwoman is the holder of the National Prize for Architecture and director of the City Detail Section IPR Prague, Pavla Melková, with members including urban planner and construction economist Paul Koch, who has realized the Dancing House and Golden Angel buildings in Prague, and London-based urban planner of Slovak origin Igor Marko. The city is represented by Mayor Martin Charvát and the Mayor of the Pardubice I District architect Jaroslav Menšík.

In the past, meetings with architectural teams have included not only the owners of the Automatic Mills but also representatives from Goldfein, which produces Pardubice gingerbread, owners of the e-Velo company, the Prague Property Management, and other private property owners. Additional workshops will start in November, and the presentation of the conceptual studies is expected to take place around mid-December, when the jury will select the winner of the competition. The winner will begin working on the regulatory plan next year, which will take one to two years.

The Automatic Mills were built between 1909 and 1911 according to the design of architect Josef Gočár. Further extensions took place in the 1920s and 1960s. The site has been abandoned since spring 2013. The Austrian company GoodMills unsuccessfully offered the mills to the city, later selling them through a real estate agency by envelope method. For 25 million crowns, architect Lukáš Smetana and his wife acquired them at the end of last year.