Ostrava Wants a Concert Hall, and I am Convinced it Will be World Class
EDITORIAL BOARD
www.posiv.cz ǀ 9
Allow me to share with you my personal
experience in organizing the Architectural
Competition for the Ostrava Concert
Hall. At the time, I was an employee
of the Ostrava City Council and
had the amazing opportunity to be
the secretary for this competition.
Preparation for any kind of Architectural
Competition is difficult. It is a multifaceted
event influenced by the differing expectations
of all involved parties and the ability to define
assignments, but it also requires a bit of
idealism and the “unbearable lightness of
being.” Essentially one must slowly assemble
the pieces to a mosaic for it to be complete.
The final picture is always reached
through a journey with twists and turns. In
the beginning, many favored the view that
acoustics should be the most important
determining factor in modeling the hall.
Personally, I was of the opinion that limiting
the competition by defining the hall’s shape
is nonsense, as any unique architectural
design is a reflection of its purpose. If
we were to restrict designs to the ideal
model, the so-called shoe box, which has
been tested over many years and could
be called a classic, we would immediately
curb the imagination and potential to link
the acoustic sciences with the unique
shape and character of the building. Each
competition is in itself a search and creative
process that aims to find something new
and unique, otherwise we might as well just
build an exact replica of the Rudolfinum.
Restrictions. Society has gotten into the
habit of restricting everything. We created
this sort of passive reality. Basically, we live
in a comfortable state, where we can tell
ourselves that everyone else has placed
restrictions on us and so we do not have
to worry about messing something up
as we cannot stray from the right path.
However, it was always the cultural and
historical giants and people that moved
society forward that stepped out of this
comfort zone. What I am trying to say is
that all great things - and this goes beyond
architecture- had come to life through
breaking certain rules.
Sometimes it is necessary to have the
courage to host a completely open
competition. Another topic entirely is
an overabundance of documents for
the competitors to take into account. In
all honesty architects are not the type of
people to study documents for half a year
before starting the creative process. They
create because they have a compulsion-
endless documentation is not something
they even have a chance of completely
encompassing- they need the abstract- an
impulse, a muse, if you will, and that is what
fuels creativity. Furthermore, great ideas can
often be the product of random chance.
Facing the specifications of the current
structure was a big challenge. Ostrava’s
Culture House is an important building by the
architect Jaroslav Frágner- in some respects
it is “untouchable.” The requirements
of the conservationists presented some
complications. The design must maintain
the current cornice height, the new annex
must only be constructed behind the current
building so that its majestic facade is not
“disturbed,” and the connection between
the annex and the Culture House must be
done through an underground tunnel. If
we want a skillfully designed concert hall
from a genius architect, we need to let them
express their approach to the historical
monument. Or maybe we should invite
the conservationists into the jury board so
that they can oversee that the historical
significance is not overlooked and constantly
have remarks about the submitted
designs. We should trust that the historical
importance was not lost on the designers -
let us not make uncultured barbarians out
of our world-class architects. Afterall, this
is also an important societal discussion,
how we should approach new annexes to
monumental, though maybe sometimes
dying and unsatisfactory, architecture.
The winning design is unique.
The architectural design made by Steven
Holl has been met with admiration
and placed onto the list of the 10 most
anticipated structures in the world!
I believe that it can become a reality!
Redakční rada / Editorial Board
POSITIV BUSINESS & STYLE
Ing. Radúz Mácha, Sdružení pro rozvoj Moravskoslezského kraje z.s. – předseda rady, Ing. Ladislav Glogar, Moravskoslezský
automobilový klastr, z.s., Ing. arch. Jan Malík, Město Příbor, Marek Pokorný, PLATO Ostrava, příspěvková organizace,
Ing. Petr Koudela, Moravian-Silesian Tourism, s.r.o., Mgr. Soňa Javůrková, Janáčkova konzervatoř v Ostravě, Mgr. Ivo Helebrant,
1
st
Internaonal School of Ostrava, Mgr. Jan Skipala, Krajská hospodářská komora Moravskoslezského kraje, Bc. Natálie Šitavancová,
MoraviaLab s.r.o., Mgr. Vladimír Maryška, Moravskoslezský kraj, Zlata Holušová, Colours of Ostrava, Ing. René Janosch,
JANOSCH B&F s.r.o., Mgr. Radka Šušková, New Dimension, s.r.o., Mgr. Ivana Češková, Česká asociace science center, z.s.,
Ing. Aleš Vítek, maxPosiv s.r.o.
Ostrava Wants a Concert Hall,
and I am Convinced it Will be World Class
We should trust that
the historical importance
was not lost on
the designers – let us
not make uncultured
barbarians out of our
world-class architects.
Ing. arch. Jan Malík
Mayor of the Town of Příbor