More than a quarter of a century has passed since the devastating floods that indelibly etched the city's image. The Statutory City of Olomouc is planning to launch an international architectural competition to design Phase III of the flood protection measures. The development of the Morava River in the north-western part of Olomouc became a challenge for the students of the Brno Faculty of Architecture, who have been working on this area on the basis of contract research. The resulting student project and site analysis became the basis for a public debate on 15 March on the terms of reference for the forthcoming competition.

The public meeting was moderated by one of the organizers of the upcoming competition from the CCEA MOBA studio, renowned expert Igor Kovačević. The participants of the discussion debated the need to promote bicycle transport, and the issue of a new footbridge at Hradisko and the establishment of the so-called northern link was also raised. During the participatory meeting, the participants recorded their ideas in the prepared map documents, from which the organisers of the competition will draw further. The competition brief will thus be developed on the basis of the real needs of the inhabitants.

"The implementation of flood protection measures and related landscaping is always a long-distance race. Even the growth of one tree, of which there are thousands in the area, is not a matter of months, but rather decades. It is therefore essential to include the youngest generation in the preparation process, whose opinions and attitudes are a strong inspiration or a necessary critical mirror to contemporary urban planning", explains one of the project leaders, architect Jan Mléčka.

Nine young architects have taken a complex approach to a now fragmented area, making the river accessible to the city's inhabitants and creating an interconnected whole that invites sport, recreation and entertainment. The spatial layout in the southern part of the site follows the Baroque concept of the Monastery Fortress. In the extension of the view axes, it creates a new residential complex with a dominant Moravian Square on the site of the existing Žižka Barracks.  The inhabitants of Lazce get a river beach with refreshments, an educational and meditation river park as well as rich areas for children and adolescents. The chamber scene of the multifunctional river amphitheatre closes the Black Forest village square. On the areas of the Hejčínské meadows up to Chomoutov, a large composite natural-agricultural landscape is being created, which, in its current use, illustrates the transformation of the landscape from industrial agriculture, through current efforts towards sustainability, to the future of agricultural production in connection with possible research at Palacký University.

"For centuries, the Morava River has provided Olomouc with protection, given fertility to the surrounding fields and landscape, and unmistakably inscribed itself in the overall shape of the city. By aggressive reduction of its natural channel at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, it became more of a canal, flowing unnoticed through the built-up area. The aim of the student proposal is to bring the river back to the city and to show that flood protection measures do not have to be just another utilitarian barrier, but a huge potential for the quality of the public space of individual districts and Olomouc as a whole." concludes one of the project leaders, architect Jan Mléčka.

The exhibition of the project Touches of Moravia will be on display in Olomouc's Lower Square until 11 April 2023.

Supervision:

Ing. arch. Jan Mléčka, Ph.D.
Ing. Iva Novotná

Students: