International Architectural and Urban Design Competition for the Transformation of Hotel Palace in Ostrava, Czech Republic - 3rd prize

The project for the transformation of Palace Hotel in Ostrava envisions a virtuous transformation of the entire urban block, fostering new physical connections and visual relationships, as well as cultural references to the surrounding city, thus integrating profoundly the new intervention into the urban fabric of Ostrava. The ambition of the project is to consolidate the urban form of the block while introducing a measured opening towards west. Together with the new special covered passageway along 28 Října, these two gestures create a varied sequence of public spaces within the block. These spaces, in dialogue with the residential, hotel, collective, and commercial functions, are harmoniously combined to generate a new continuum of high-quality urban environments and a renewed vibrancy for the entire area. The design strategy seeks a careful balance between the enhancement of the historical traces of the original buildings, significantly altered over time, and the introduction of new architectural interventions that bring temporal depth, functional flexibility, typological variety, and a conscious use of resources. In this way, the project aspires to become a European benchmark for contemporary urban transformation.