Benthem Crouwel and West 8 announced as winners of the Brno New Main Train Station competition

The city of Brno in the Czech Republic’s South Moravian region is today announcing the winner of its international competition for a new train station along the Svratka River.

The Dutch duo of Benthem Crouwel and West 8 was selected from over 45 other applicants for their shared proposal that would add a new railway hub for the city of almost 400,000.

The plan refers to the local history and character of the city while creating a vibrant public space with a multi-purpose plan that incorporates retail, office, and dining functions into the 14-platform railway station. The plan further calls for a hotel, promenade, and waterfront park stationed around the dynamic €1.8 billion ($2.1 billion) development.

Designers were particularly responsive to the human needs presented in the scheme, incorporating a design scheme that emphasizes free movement and connectivity in a “barrier-free” district with clear views of Brno’s skyline.

“The new Brno main station is both grand and human, monumental and tangible. Our design combines a straightforward, yet very comfortable platform canopy with a sensual station building,” Bentham Crouwel’s Pascal Cornips said in a statement.

An arched roof concourse highlights a commitment to the city’s cultural heritage further by a new public welcoming hall that bifurcates the station from the rest of the city.

Two mid-rise diagonal towers will be erected as well, framing the station’s envelope against the city in a picturesque way that aids in wayfinding and aesthetic considerations. On-site solar panels generate energy enough to make the new station a net-positive project.

There was no timeframe given for the beginning of construction. The project is expected to be realized sometime between 2023 and 2025.