SL / Projects

Competition (Public)

The Sugar Factory – a New Centre for Šlapanice

The urban structure of Šlapanice is based on the dense character of a traditional Moravian village which gradually developed into a town. The streets are typical of the rural housing structure where the homes are closely connected to the surrounding farmland: some of them winding, some straight, and some slightly curved. The streetscape is interspersed with other usual spatial features: squares, yards, intersections, street corners. The central part of the town consists of village-type blocks of family houses with large private green areas – the original kitchen gardens. Towards the edge, the housing blocks are smaller, but the distinction between the public and the private is still clearly visible. The built areas, including the more contemporary housing development od detached houses, follow the modern concept of “living surrounded by greenery”. The banks of the Říčka stream, which runs through the town from North to South, are of local, and even (micro)regional, importance for their function as place of relaxation and landmark compositional feature. The project comprises the complex of the former sugar factory and the adjacent streets, with a total area of over 6 ha.

The landscape design takes the rural context as its starting point. It helps create and define the public spaces in terms of their quality for users, both in the project area and in the adjacent parts of the town, naturally strengthening the connection between them. The project is inspired by the structure of the surrounding agricultural landscape which, traditionally, has been directly connected with the rural settlements, the streets being defined by the adjacent houses and gardens, which connected to the fields. The town, with its growing needs, is swallowing up the patchwork structure of these narrow, multicoloured stripes of land. Our design brings them back, offering different variations throughout the public spaces in the park. We create a mosaic of soft banks of the Říčka stream, a more intensively maintained park, and the hard surfaces of the square where an alley of red oaks lines the access path to the building of the granary. The access paths are lined on one side with elm trees, guiding the visitor naturally towards the square. The park has a varied tree floor consisting of cherry trees, hornbeams, oaks and ash trees. Throughout the project area, trees help define the spaces and create the mood. What is also important, they provide shade, which helps eliminate the unfavourable effect of high temperatures and improve users’ experience.