In Ostrava, capital of the Czech region of Moravia-Silesia, the Polish firm founded by Robert Konieczny, KWK Promes, was entrusted to transform a slaughterhouse that was in a state of ruin into an art gallery. In the superposition of layers showing the building’s history, the project has maintained the soot-darkened brickwork, witnesses of the city’s industrial past, while the demolished walls have been reconstructed with contemporary materials like microcement, recreating inexistent elements and original decoration. Six large openings in the old structure were filled with panels which function as rotating doors, two of them serving as entrances and the rest connecting the galleries to the exterior. The screenprints on the dark opaque glazing reduces the light entering the galleries, and the arrangement of vegetation in the outdoor areas refers to the location of the other buildings on the old slaughterhouse premises.

Text provided by the architect.

La entrada PLATO Contemporary Art Gallery se publicó primero en Global Spaces.

Our new home was created in a historical part of a small South Bohemian town, which, although neglected, possesses a rather strong atmosphere and potential. The place attracted us from the beginning for its distinctive character and great location.

In the narrow sleepy streets, next to the grassy patch of the Kozina Square, we are hidden from the hustle and bustle of the surrounding traffic, while only a few steps separate us from the town center with shops, services and offices, schools, cinema, theater and railway station. We perceive the reconstructed house as an alternative to suburban villas which sometimes disproportionately cut out of our landscape. On a significantly smaller area, we are implementing a building program which includes a sufficiently large living room with an adjoining outdoor terrace, an attic with children’s rooms and a playroom, a bedroom with its own bathroom, a garden with fruit trees, two garage spaces and a large workshop with a car lift. The residential building is created by connecting two neighboring houses. One of them underwent a significant reconstruction at the turn of the millennium, the other one is in a state of disrepair.

La entrada Kozina house se publicó primero en Global Spaces.