The future of Špitálka

THE PROCESS

The Špitálka area is located on the territory of heating plant of the company Teplárny Brno. Its revitalisation into a functioning city district is a long-lasting and complex process in which a large number of stakeholders play their roles. Currently, the optimization of the operation of Brno heating plants is being prepared, after which the western part of the compound will remain unused. The city of Brno is therefore interested in using this area for the future construction of smart district RE:Špitálka. For this reason, it is necessary to find a suitable business model that will be economically reasonable for the city, the company Teplárny Brno, and for potential future investors and developers as well.

The smart district project is divided into individual stages, which comprise partial steps necessary for its successful implementation. The first stage consisted in defining the urban-architectural design of the area. After Špitálka was included in the European RUGGEDISED project, an international urban design competition was organised for the entire basic settlement area (the size of 24.55 hectares), which also includes the location of the future smart district. Based on the results of this competition, a zoning study preparation was commissioned, which serves as a basis for an amendment to the Master Zoning Plan of the City of Brno and the area regulation plan. In parallel with the zoning study preparation, an urban-architectural proposal, the Master Plan for RE:Špitálka itself (covering an area of 2.5 hectares), was also created, which defines the future shape of the smart district.

These steps led to the launch of the second stage, which enabled the establishment of the conditions for the implementation and realisation of the smart district. At the beginning of the phase, innovative trends that could be exploited during construction were researched. The initial research served as a basis for a series of expert roundtables. The outputs from these six workshops were incorporated into the so-called White Paper – a document that contains specific conditions for the implementation of the construction and complements the previously presented Master Plan in terms of the use of innovative technologies and approaches. More information on the individual measures can be found in the INNOVATIONS section.

In the third and final stage, we will focus on the preparation of project documentation and the search for a strategic investor who will bring the reconstruction of Špitálka to a successful conclusion. First of all, preliminary market consultations with potential partners will take place on the basis of the White Paper. The meetings aim to verify whether the project set-up is viable, financially sustainable and meets the requirements for a modern and technically advanced development. At the same time, we will be working on the development of the tender documentation, which will start the process of selecting a strategic partner. Once the search is complete, the selected investor will be able to focus on the physical and design preparation of the area. Construction of the Špitálka Smart District is expected to begin at the end of 2027, with completion expected in 2030.

You can see how we are progressing towards each of these goals on the timeline. We believe that we will bring the challenging project of building the smart district to a successful conclusion.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

• outline the possibilities for future development of the broader area of Špitálka
• plan and design development of an innovative district named RE:Špitálka
• verify the use of modern technologies and approaches for their possible expansion all over the city
• create a lively and modern neighborhood where people can comfortably live, work and spend their leisure time.

THE VISION

What this smart neighbourhood should look like in the future is also determined by the new strategy of the city of Brno up to the year 2050. The strategy entitled #brno2050 sets out partial values of what the city should be like in the year 2050, what specific targets should be achieved and to what extent. The smart district at Špitálka will serve as a pilot neighbourhood for verifying the objectives set in a closer horizon than 2050, so that the individual measures implemented can be evaluated and potentially further expanded to other areas of the city.

More information about the strategy #brno2050 can be found here: www.brno2050.cz