Galerie Caesar exhibits the transformation of Olomouc's Třída Svobody

Olomouc - Through models, spatial diagrams, and projections, a new exhibition at Gallery Caesar captures the transformation of Třída Svobody in Olomouc. The design is the result of a project by students from the Faculty of Architecture in Brno titled Třída Svobody finally completed. In it, students processed new buildings of the ice rink and a market with a relocated town hall and magistrate. According to the exhibition's authors, the project highlights the enormous potential of this pivotal street in Olomouc. The exhibition will be open until July 12.

The project was created in the studio of Jan Mléčka at the Faculty of Architecture of VUT in Brno, with the support of Olomouc architect Tomáš Pejpek. The students built upon the principles of the author of Třída Svobody, the classic urbanist Camillo Sitte, and adapted them to today's possibilities and needs of a modern city. "The foundation of the design is the completion of the unfinished side of the street, so that the class assumes the profile originally intended by Sitte. We consider both ends of the class as symbolic gateways to the city center. We are placing significant public buildings in them, a new magistrate building in the south and a multifunctional hall in the north," stated project leader Jan Mléčka.

In the project, students prioritized the movement of pedestrians, cyclists, and public transport, proposing a reorganization of traffic. "The design also includes a number of public spaces, a monastery garden, a monumental square in front of the new magistrate and the Hus Church, as well as houses for nearly a thousand apartments, over twenty thousand square meters of commercial space, and two thousand parking spaces," added Mléčka.

According to the project leader, Třída Svobody in Olomouc is an exceptional urban work of Camillo Sitte. "Třída Svobody stands at the end of an important era as one of the last planned circular boulevards in the world and represents the pinnacle in designing similar 'rings.' It embodies the immense cultural ambitions of the residents of Olomouc, who wanted to join the greatest metropolises of the time. However, the arrival of the 20th century destroyed the pioneering ethos, leaving only fragments of the plans," added the project leader.

The project titled Re: Sitte is a contemporary interpretation of a 120-year-old plan that lies at the foundation of modern urbanism in Olomouc. According to Mléčka, it is not only a subject for discussion about individual places and themes, such as town halls or ice rinks, but also a coherent vision of how the residents of Olomouc can complete the unfinished circular avenue.