The former slaughterhouse building in Ostrava is being transformed into a gallery

Ostrava - In Ostrava, the reconstruction of the historic building of the former slaughterhouse is beginning, which will be transformed into a modern art gallery. The construction costing 206 million crowns is expected to be completed by the end of next year. The winning construction company took over the project today. This was stated by city hall spokesperson Andrea Vojkovská.

The heritage-protected building will be reconstructed according to the design by the Polish studio KWK Promes of architect Robert Konieczny, which emerged from the architectural competition announced in 2017. "Regardless of the coronavirus, we continue to initiate new investments," said Mayor Tomáš Macura (ANO). According to him, the city will manage the economic impacts of the current situation. "We plan to prioritize compensating for the expected loss of city revenues due to crisis measures through savings on regular expenditures, not by limiting investments," added Macura.

This year, nearly 100 million crowns have been allocated for the reconstruction of the building. The modern art gallery will transform five adjoining parts of the building of varying ages, including the original cold storage, new cold storage, pig slaughterhouse, and a covered atrium. Due to technical conditions, the operational building will be demolished and replaced with a new one.

"The first two months will be dedicated to the demolition, dismantling, and demolition of the operational building, followed by the interiors, historic facades of the building, and other work according to the established schedule," specified Deputy Mayor for Investments Zuzana Bajgarová (ANO).

After reconstruction, the building will have six exhibition halls that can be interconnected or operate independently. Thanks to rotating walls, the exhibition space will also incorporate outdoor areas. "It's an interesting project that poses a challenge for us, one of the biggest being the rotating walls, which are not a standard element commonly used in construction," said Marek Podzemný, production director and vice-chairman of the board of the company Zlínstav, which won the public competition for the reconstruction of the slaughterhouse. He does not expect the pandemic to have a significant impact on the reconstruction.

In 1994, the city district of Moravian Ostrava and Přívoz sold a two-hectare plot including the former slaughterhouse building to Bauhaus for more than 38 million crowns. The company built a DIY store in close proximity to the slaughterhouse. However, the slaughterhouse fell into disrepair and was never renovated, and the store also ceased operation. The city long struggled to reacquire the slaughterhouse, ultimately managing to purchase it back. It paid 80 million crowns for it, including the former Bauhaus store. In 2017, the city announced an architectural competition for the reconstruction of the slaughterhouse, selecting a winner from eight designs. The Polish architect placed third. The winner of the competition, the Prague studio Petr Hájek Architekti, could not agree on the contract terms with the city and was excluded from the process. During the negotiated procedure without publication for the development of the project that followed the architectural competition, only the winning studio, which did not finalize the contract, and the Polish architect applied. The studio that placed second in the competition did not submit its project for the negotiation process.