Medard

CategoryUrban Planning, Urbanism

LocationSvatava

StatusIn progress

What should be done with a landscape after mining, once industry has gone? This is precisely the question addressed by the Medard project – one of the largest post-mining landscape transformation projects in Central Europe. Covering approximately 2,000 hectares, 500 of which are the lake itself, the site offers an exceptional opportunity for the long-term transformation of the Sokolov area and the entire Karlovy Vary Region.

It is not simply about revitalising the landscape or creating a new leisure destination. The study seeks a long-term vision for living, working, housing, recreation and economic development, bringing together urbanism, landscape, ecology, economics, demography and social issues.

Water becomes the fundamental structure of future development here, connecting the landscape, municipalities and public space and creating a new identity for an area shaped for decades by mining and heavy industry.

Client	SUAS GROUP a.s.
Design team	Martin Krupauer Pavel Kvintus Martin Sedmák Andrej Kacera Marta Vranová Tamara Crhová

Water as the Foundation of a New Landscape

We do not see the lake as an add-on to the area or as a stand-alone leisure attraction. Water becomes the main principle that organises future development, restores the relationship between people and the landscape and creates new opportunities for housing, work, recreation and public life. One of the study’s fundamental principles is therefore to keep the shoreline open and publicly accessible, with a continuous footpath and cycle route.

Access to the water remains a shared asset and forms the basis of the new identity of the whole area.

New Life Around the Lake

The study explores the potential for a new urban district, ‘Harbour’, on the eastern shore, which would make use of the earthworks and shoreline modifications already in place as well as the existing transport infrastructure. The vision also includes concepts for living on the water and the ‘Island’ House – a technologically intelligent building that could become one of the symbols of Medard’s transformation.

The design also works with the specific landscape morphology created by past mining and explores the possibilities for housing on the edges and terraces above the lake. Rather than being suppressed, the area’s industrial past becomes the starting point for its future spatial development.

A Smart Green Location

The concept also includes areas for sport, recreation and leisure, along with the principles of a smart green location based on sustainable mobility, energy, ecology and efficient land management. The individual proposals represent design options and directions for future development, which the study examines in their wider economic, environmental and social context.

The future of Medard is therefore built not on a single specific project, but on a long-term strategy of working with water and landscape and the gradual transformation of the entire region.