In brief

• The former Istrochem plant site in Bratislava, covering over one million square metres, will be transformed based on an urban design competition.
• The plant was founded in 1873 on the initiative of Alfred Nobel and over time ended up in the centre of the city.
• Part of the buildings, including the boiler house, will be preserved, and residents may express their views in a survey.

An area of over one million square metres

Bratislava's Istrochem is set to change its face. An area exceeding 1,600,000 square metres is to be transformed based on the results of an urban design competition (Bývalý Istrochem čaká veľká premena. O jeho budúcej podobe môžu rozhodnúť aj Bratislavčania – STVR). The owner of the site notes that the transformation will take several decades.

From a fringe factory to the city centre

The site for the plant was already selected in 1873 by Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. Its location at the junction of several railway lines was valued at the time. The plant was built far outside the city, but over time the city reached it and it found itself in the centre. Production gradually faded out, and the site is now awaiting a change of function. Some buildings, however, have historical value, for example the boiler house, which has been preserved. Residents may decide whether a sports or cultural facility will be built on this site.

The voice of residents and urban planners

Peter Čižmár, senior business development manager at Penta Real Estate, points out that the people who will live here, and their neighbours, know best their everyday needs. The urban study is also meant to show whether the district will become an area built up with high-rises, like Bratislava's Old Town, and thus whether the New Town will also gain high-rise development.