Ostrava Transformation: Kozuba Miners’ Sanctuary & City Revival

After years of “exile”, as the fans call the city stadium in Vítkovice, the Football Miner will return to Silesia. At the beginning of November, the club together with the management of Ostrava published the new look of the Bazaly stadium, from which Baník had to move ten years ago due to unsatisfactory conditions.

The stadium with a capacity of up to 20,000 seats should get a new look from the Spanish studio L35 Arquitectos, which participated with its designs in the renovation of Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu arena.

“In addition to the emphasis on the architectural side of the stadium, whose winning form underlines the industrial history of the city and fulfills the blending of historical tradition with the future that awaits Ostrava, we also paid attention to its functionality and spectator comfort,” said Mayor Jan Dohnal.

The construction should cost 2.5 billion crowns. The main investor will be the city, 250 million will be contributed by the region. According to current plans, construction will begin in 2029, and it should be completed two years later.

This summer, the second phase of the construction of the new concert hall, which is being built near the House of Culture in 28. října Street, began. After the preparatory work that began in recent years, the hall itself is now being built, the authors of which are the studios of Steven Holl Architects from New York and Architecture Acts from Prague.

This was delayed compared to the original plans due to the necessary addition of project documentation. The construction completion date has thus been postponed. Originally the city was talking about 2027, now it looks like the second half of 2028.

“With Steven Hall’s proposal, the city is not ‘just’ getting a concert hall. It is getting an iconic building by a world-class architect, which automatically places Ostrava among important metropolises for which culture is one of the significant priorities. I am sure that the resulting social effect of this building will be much more significant than we can imagine at the moment,” said Jan Žemla, director of the Ostrava Janáček Philharmonic.

According to the city’s current estimates, the building will cost a little over four billion, compared to the originally tendered 2.8 billion.

Just across the road from the concert hall at the regional office building, another large project began to be built this year – a building aptly named Černá kostka. The Moravian-Silesian Scientific Library, which has been waiting for its own building for several decades, is to relocate here. Since 1951, it has been housed in the temporary premises of the New Town Hall.

“The black cube plays a fundamental role in the transformation of our region. In order for our region and its economy to develop successfully, we need to attract large investors who will choose us as a location for their projects. The center of digitization, science and innovation will be our imaginary calling card and proof that we are a modern and dynamic region that goes against the latest technologies, emphasizes education and is not afraid of big challenges,” said the Governor of the Moravian-Silesian Region, Josef Bělica.

The Black Cube should be ready by June 2027 at the latest.

The project should cost a total of 2.6 billion crowns. 1.65 billion crowns will be provided by the European Union. The Moravian-Silesian region together with Ostrava will give less than a billion for the construction.

For over a hundred years until 1974, the Žofinská huť stood on a site not far from the center of Ostrava near the Karolina mine. Today, however, a shopping center stands on the site of the mine, and the brownfield, where the smelter used to stand, is also awaiting transformation.

The Pod Žofinkou Holding company of investors Tomáš Laštovka and Libor Adámek, former co-owner of Baník Ostrava, plans to build an entire new neighborhood for about 12,000 people on twenty hectares, according to the design of the Danish studio Adept.

Construction will begin next fall and will last approximately twenty years. The main part is to be made up of urban blocks with a height of five to seven floors, which will be complemented by residential towers with up to 16 floors. A school campus or offices should also be part of it.

According to the plans of the RT Torax Group company of businessman Tomáš Häring, the new tallest building in the Czech Republic should rise in the gap between the Nová Karolina shopping center and 28. October street. This was also suggested by the Adept group.

The building will have apartments, offices, congress halls and a hotel. Construction is expected to begin in 2029, and the Czech Republic should have its new tallest building in 2032.

“We are moving in an area affected by mining activity, where the foundation of the structure is extremely challenging due to the subsoil. Thanks to the detailed geological survey from 2022 and other expert studies, however, the specialists have an accurate idea of the composition of the subsoil. We have the terrain perfectly mapped, and now it is not only the task of the structural engineers to integrate all the knowledge into a safe and functional foundation design,” said Häring.

A new player has emerged on the respected Ostrava theater scene in recent years. Since 2017, the Mír Theater has been housed in a former cinema in Vítkovice. This is private, it was founded by the actor Albert Čuba. The theater is associated with actors from the comedy group Tři tygre, for example Štěpán Kozub.

This year, Čuba presented a plan for the construction of a new stage, which is to be built on a parking lot near the current theater. The 400 million building is to include three halls, the largest of which is to have a capacity of over five hundred spectators. If all goes according to plan, construction will begin in 2027 and be completed three years later.

“The current situation is that we have applied for a building permit and are now waiting for it to be processed. At the same time, we are constantly looking for financial resources – so we are looking for investors and at the same time our crowdfunding campaign continues, which, however, is a kind of supplement to financing, the entire existence of the project certainly does not depend on it,” said Jan Lipovský, the theater’s marketing director.

The project wants to finance the theater from its own resources. Originally, the city was also supposed to be involved in the project, which promised to build an underground garage for a hundred cars under the theater. However, the cost of this turned out to be more expensive than Ostrava expected, so it backed out of the commitment. Theater representatives are now looking for other parking solutions.

Ostrava’s famous Stodolní street is undergoing a significant transformation. It is known as the former center of night life in Ostrava and the entire region, but today the situation is different. Entertainment has moved elsewhere and previously popular clubs are closing.

But this does not mean that Stodolní street has no future. In the coming years, a building with 131 apartments of 1+kk and 2+kk sizes, as well as space for services and shops, will be built on the site of the building, which housed famous names such as Boomerang and Templ. Linkcity is behind the Rezidence Stodolní project.

“Linkcity is also participating in the design of the new pedestrian zone, which will be created as an investment by the city between the Stodolní Residence and the Plato gallery. Both projects, the Stodolní Residence and the new pedestrian zone, were prepared in coordination with the city of Ostrava,” the company’s website states.

In recent years, culture and nightlife have moved from Stodolní to the Ostravice embankment, to a place nicknamed Little Copenhagen. But the corner of one of the houses has been haunted by a skeleton under construction for over twelve years.

This should change in the coming years, a new building with smaller and larger apartments is being built on the site. On the ground floor there is a place for services. The Pascerex real firm of architect David Kotek is behind the Rezidence Biskupská project.