Urbanists can apply for the competition regarding the shape of Florence

Prague – Interested parties wishing to participate in the international urban planning competition for the future appearance of the bus station at Florenc and the surrounding area towards Masaryk Station can register until April 26. The winner of the competition will be announced this November. This was stated to journalists today by the competition organizer Petr Návrat. The brief for the urban planning competition was approved today by the councilors of the capital city. The ecological organization Arnika criticized in a press release today that the public was not involved in the preparation of the competition.

"We hope that the competition will contribute to the discussion on urban planning in the 21st century," said Návrat. He added that it is expected that participants in the competition will also address how the city center should look in a post-COVID-19 situation, which may affect the way people work and spend their leisure time. According to Deputy Mayor Petr Hlaváček (for TOP 09), the result of the competition should serve as a basis for changes to the zoning plan.

According to Návrat, the competition is organized in the form of workshops. An international jury will select five competition teams from the registered entries, which will participate in three planned workshops. In the first workshop, which will take place in May, the selected teams will create a concept that they will further develop in the next round.

Participants will be able to communicate with representatives of the Prague City Hall, landowners, investors, representatives of the Institute of Planning and Development of Prague, and others during the proposal creation, according to the organizer of the competition. According to the schedule on the website Florenc21.eu, participants are expected to submit the final proposal by November 15. The results of the competition will be announced in the second half of November.

The competition's clients are the investors ČSAD Praha holding and Masaryk Station Development, where Penta Real Estate is the majority shareholder. These companies are the majority owners of the land in the area in question.

According to representatives of the organization Arnika, the needs of the residents are not reflected in the competition. The reason is that the public did not participate in the preparations for the competition. According to Václav Orcígr from Arnika, the competition brief is based on stimuli for changes to the zoning plan that allow for the densest possible development of the surroundings according to Penta's vision, he stated in the press release. Arnika also described the form of holding the urban planning competition as workshops as unconventional.