The Palacký University has commenced the construction of the Faculty of Science

Olomouc - In about two years, students of the Faculty of Science at Palacký University in Olomouc will be able to attend lectures in the new faculty building on 17th November Avenue. The construction, which is one of the largest investment projects in the university's history, was officially started today by university representatives with the laying of the foundation stone. The faculty has been waiting for this moment for 40 years, said the dean of the faculty, Juraj Ševčík, to those present today.
    According to him, a large part of the 3,000 students and about 200 teachers and researchers of the faculty will be able to work in the new building already in the winter semester of the academic year 2008/2009. "Subjects focused on mathematics, computer science, physics, chemistry, and earth sciences will move into the building from several locations scattered across Olomouc. Another center of the faculty will remain in the area of Holice," Ševčík said today to ČTK.
    The construction costs approximately 850 million crowns, and the majority will be funded by the state budget. "It must be said that the construction of the new Faculty of Science building is basically the largest investment of the university in its history in terms of financial volume. In terms of size, it can only be compared to the construction of the original theoretical institutes of the medical faculty at the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s," said Jiří Jirka, the bursar of UP, to ČTK today.
    The new building will rise on a site where people were accustomed to coming for circuses or various festivals. "This place will remain open to the public through the faculty. We want to offer play with nature," Ševčík added.
    The contractor for the construction is a consortium of companies Hochtief-VSB and TCHAS, which won the tender. The six-story building will take the form of an elongated cross, with the main part of the land remaining undeveloped and serving as a park. "We tried to preserve the maximum of the existing green area. We did not develop it entirely, but only bordered it in a certain way. The building should not act as a barrier," said one of the architects, Pavel Joba from Atelier M1 architects, to ČTK today.
    The building will be over 200 meters long and about 25 meters high. The basement will contain garages, the ground floor will feature educational spaces with glass facades. The first and second floors will consist of common educational spaces, and the remaining three floors will be occupied by individual study disciplines.