The competition for the new square and residential building in H. Králové was won by architects from Spain

Hradec Králové - The winner of the international architectural-urban competition for a new square and residential building in the Kukleny district of Hradec Králové is a consortium of Spanish architectural firms Mach Office and Arame Studio from Barcelona. The city received 49 proposals for the competition announced last December, and in the second final round, the expert jury selected from five designs, the city council announced today. The square, located on the site of the former Kukleny tannery, is set to become the center of the developing district on the western edge of the city.

"The proposal rated highest by the jury offers high architectural and urban quality, variable, modular, rational and at the same time original and modern solutions, and thus realizable affordable housing,” said Adam Záruba (independent), the mayor's deputy for the environment, urbanism, and spatial planning. According to him, the proposal includes ample green spaces, works with space in a modern and airy manner, and sensitively approaches surrounding buildings. The architects have also originally incorporated the historic house No. 111, which had been considered for demolition, into the project, according to Záruba. A brick chimney from the former tannery will remain on the site.

According to the city’s chief architect, Šárka Dlouhá, the proposal should give the former tanneries a new identity and connect to the industrial past of Kuklen, characterized by brick architecture and engineering or locksmith production. "The winning design convincingly connects this memory of the place with a new urban environment and at the same time recalls the gardening tradition of Kuklen, particularly through work with greenery and the possibility of a community greenhouse,” Dlouhá stated.

In addition to architects from Spain, the final five included studios from Canada, Germany, Portugal, and Brno. "It is evident that Hradec Králové is starting to regain a good reputation in terms of the quality of architectural creation,” remarked Záruba regarding the foreign participation. All competition proposals will be presented to the public at an exhibition starting June 17 in the Archa building of the East Bohemian Museum in the Vrbenského barracks.

The winning consortium is now expected to prepare project documentation for the city. Hradec Králové's councilors allocated 35 million crowns in the city budget for project work for this and next year on Tuesday.

For the Spanish consortium, winning in Hradec Králové is not their first success in the Czech Republic. Last year, the consortium Mach Office and Arame Studio won an architectural competition for the design of a new bus transportation terminal, parking house, and municipal office in the area of the former Křižanovy sawmill in Valašské Meziříčí in the Vsetín region.

The residential block of cooperative housing planned by the city should comprise 90 apartments and is to be built near Pražská street and the new square. According to the city hall, cooperative apartments are expected to primarily benefit young families with children. The city hall believes that cooperative apartments could be up to 30 percent cheaper than those in developer housing projects. On Tuesday, the Hradec councilors approved the establishment of a housing cooperative, the founding members of which will include not only Hradec Králové but also the Building Housing Cooperative Náchod and the revitalizujeme.cz company.

The Kukleny brownfield, covering nearly 14 hectares, has what the city hall describes as exceptional potential to create a new neighborhood center where nearly 1,900 people could find a home. The architectural competition concerned an area of more than half a hectare, of which over half is to be occupied by the residential building, and the rest will be the square.

The dilapidated structure of the former tannery in Kukleny from the 19th century was demolished by the city in 2023. As a reminder of the extensive factory complex built of reddish masonry, only the chimney remains.