Opava Prize J. M. Olbrich for the year 2020 awarded

Over the weekend, the Architecture Days took place in Opava, with more than ten events and accessible buildings attracting over a thousand spectators. The Architecture Days have ended, but two exhibitions are still ongoing on the second floor of Slezanka at Horní náměstí in Opava. The first exhibition showcases the works of architecture students from Prague, Brno, and Ostrava on the theme of the city of Opava. The second exhibition presents 13 nominations for the Josef Maria Olbrich Award for reconstruction in 2018 and 2019, along with the statement from the expert jury regarding the finalists. The expert jury consists of architectural historians and architects from across the Czech Republic. During the opening, the winners of this year's, already the 14th edition of the J. M. Olbrich architectural award, were announced. The award went to the reconstruction of the unfinished department store into the Obecní dům in Kobeřice, designed by architect Jiří Horák. This year, the jury decided to award two prizes, with the second one going to the reconstruction of the former kindergarten in Opava-Kateřinky. Under the hands of architects Jan Zelinka and Petr Doležal from Ateliér 38, it was transformed into a language school with additional business spaces. The jury also awarded an honorary mention to the reconstruction of the Panorama cinema in Vítkov for exemplary reconstruction of a cultural monument; the functionalist building from the 1930s was returned to its original form, and visiting the cinema is now a visual experience that meets all current standards for sound and image.
At the end of the year, a new round of nominations for the Olbrich Award will be announced, this time for the new buildings constructed in the Opava district in 2019 and 2020. The award is organized by the association Za Opavu, aiming to inform the public about contemporary architecture, promote it, and simultaneously motivate investors to consider public space in their plans, allowing Opava to acquire more good architectural realizations.

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