The project came about as a result of a competition to turn a dilapidated old slaughterhouse in the Czech city of Ostrava into the PLATO Gallery of Contemporary Art.

The walls of the slaughterhouse were dilapidated and battered with huge holes. The soot-reddened brickwork bore witness to the city's industrial history. The architects from Robert Konieczny's KWK Promes treated these defects as a value and added another layer to the history of the building, which has a conservation order. They were allowed to preserve the character of the soiled brick and the windows, and to fill in the holes in the walls with contemporary material while retaining the old ornamentation of the brick walls. The architects also adopted the principle of recreating all non-existent building elements from micro-concrete for the reconstruction of the collapsed section of the slaughterhouse.
The main idea of the project is based on preserving the functionality of the openings as shortcuts connecting the building with the city. Hence the idea that their new infills could rotate and open the exhibition rooms directly to the outside. This has provided artists and curators with entirely new exhibition possibilities and allows art to literally 'go out' into the space around the building. Mobility has meant that culture in its broadest sense can take on a more democratic character, as well as being accessible to new audiences.

The outdoor display space in the form of hardened water-permeable floors is surrounded by greenery. Contaminated soil around the building has been remediated and replaced with a biodiverse park. The majority of the square is made up of grass, flower meadows and trees, along with a small pond and underground retention tanks. The layout of the greenery alludes to the location of the buildings that originally supported the slaughterhouse, and edible crops, also inside the gallery, complete the transformation of the site.

Authors: Robert Konieczny KWK Promes,
architects: Robert Konieczny, Michał Lisiński, Dorota Skóra
Authorial collaboration: architects: Tadeáš Goryczka, Marek Golab-Sieling
Collaboration: architects: Agnieszka Wolny-Grabowska, Krzysztof Kobiela, Adrianna Wycisło, Mateusz Białek, Jakub Bilan, Wojciech Fudala, Katarzyna Kuzior, Damian Kuna, Jakub Pielecha, Magdalena Orzeł – Rurańska, Elżbieta Siwiec, Anna Szewczyk, Kinga Wojtanowska
Interior designer: Robert Konieczny KWK Promes; TUKEJ Justyna Kucharczyk, Agnieszka Nawrocka; Yvette Vašourková CCEA MOBA
Garden treatments: Denisa Tomášková
Constructional solutions: MS – Projekce,
designer: Jaroslav Habrnal, Petr Hanko, Pavel Šlancar, Martina Volná
Engineering networks and distribution: MS – Projekce a spol.
General contractor: Zlínstav
Site area: 11417 m2
Gross Building Area: 2154 m2
Usable floor area: 2841 m2
Gross Floor Area: 3601 m2
Volume: 18700 m3
Design: 2017-2019
Realization: 2020-2022
Project costs: 230 000 000 CZK + 48 600 000 CZK (green public space around the building)