The Krnov Town Hall will display proposals from architects for the modification of the square

Krnov - The Krnov City Hall will display the architects' proposals for the modification of the Main Square. All ten proposals submitted to the competition announced by the city will be exhibited in the stairwell and hallways of the city hall from December 13 to January 31. The authors of the two most successful solutions, Atelier 111 and architect Lukáš Grass, are to develop their projects by the end of the year. The city will then choose one that will be completed and could potentially be realized in the future. This was stated by the spokesperson of the Krnov City Hall, Dita Círová.

According to the City Hall, the Main Square is expected to transform into a timeless and representative space in the coming years. To ensure the modification is of high quality on all fronts, attractive, and does not disrupt the historical core of the city, the city announced an architectural competition. The jury included, in addition to representatives from the city and heritage experts, holders of architectural awards Jan Šépka and Pavla Melková, as well as a member of the working group of the Czech Chamber of Architects, Vojtěch Mencl. "The jury did not select a winner for the competition. However, it awarded two second places,” the spokesperson stated.

After refining the proposals from Atelier 111 and architect Grass, the city council will decide on the definitive winner, who - according to the competition conditions - will receive a subsequent contract for further developing the proposal into the form of an architectural study. "It will be the one who convinces us that they can create a good solution for the long term, say, 30 years, which will be sensitive, with sufficient greenery and reasonably costly," said city architect Lubomír Dehner.

According to him, both competition proposals account for two variants of the solution - completing the construction and leaving the current gap, where the greenery is.

The most recent architectural competition in Krnov was about 50 years ago, in 1967. It concerned the solution of the city center, where a number of buildings were destroyed during the war. Other buildings then fell into disrepair due to age and lack of maintenance to such an extent that they had to be demolished. In that competition, with the first prize subsidized with an amount of 30,000 crowns, 82 participants applied. Ultimately, half of the competition proposals were submitted.