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60,4.3,0.6ha

Part 2 Project 2001
David Adams
Marko Neskovic
Walid El Turki
 University of Brighton | UK
A city consists of many layers that create the realm of everyday life. The layers of Ostrava, grown from the mining and steel industry, decayed physically, leaving large brown-field sites close to the city centre. The challenge was to produce a functioning body of layers that would create a city as a whole, resulting in a master-plan reflecting the social complexity of a reformed Czech Republic. In addition to this, a further two projects examined the formation of the city: a more detailed study in the form of an urban strip of 4.3 hectares; and a public library marking the gateway into the master-plan.

The urban form of the modern city has been formed over the centuries by countless modifications that are made regardless of the function of any single building or space. These two cases both study this phenomenon, though at two different scales. The urban form is simulated by a process that creates chaos and derives an order through regulating lines and axes, that dissolves thresholds and creates interlocking spaces with varied environments. Situated on the threshold that divides old and new, the library functions as a transition space as well as a place of comfort, becoming an icon for knowledge and memory.


The School of Architecture first opened up a dialogue with the Technical University of Brno in 1988 before the Velvet Revolution. Since then hardly a year has passed without there being a two way exchange of students. Walid, David and Marko did not take part in an exchange but they did visit friends who were in Brno and with the help of Brno tutors embarked on this ambitious study of the town of Ostrava. Although each of these three has a very different outlook and architectural philosophy they managed to work very well together as a group. Having cooperated to produce a joint masterplan for the whole town as well as for the study area, Walid and David concentrated on producing a detailed model for the 'strip', an archetypical element of the central area. Marko on the other hand concentrated on designing a library and information centre on the boundary between the old town and the new quarter.
2001
A study of the picturesque introduced a series of manifestations into the development of the idea, then evolving into spatial investigations of light, density and texture.
Urban density and a mix of uses combine with the different routes and spaces of the master-plan. It depicts how people and landscape interact and travel through the city.
The Amber Route is key to the growth strategy of the master-plan and was analysed along with the Bazaar of Isfahan and its linear development.
The distribution of conceptual “seeds” carried certain themes specific to Ostrava and the Czech Republic, thus determining the growth patterns of ‘micro-communities’.
Progression and expansion of city spaces and the fusion of functions was tested with sugar cube models, before being extended using a 3D model.
The city comes to live through movement. As a generator of urban spaces it was investigated in three dimensions and perspective rather than plan view.
15. 0.6ha: Walls, analogous to theatre sets, were inserted to define spaces. 4.3ha: A sectional model studied form, light and façades, as a visual study of space without function.
Both projects were then taken into a further stage of detailed development in which spaces were given concrete identities using plans and sections.
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