Description of the project
The city of Hradec Králové has been home to the Charles University Faculty of Medicine for 75 years and to the Charles University Faculty of Pharmacy for more than 55 years. Both faculties operate in buildings that were not originally designed for university use (the Faculty of Medicine is housed in a historic building on Šimkova Street, while the Faculty of Pharmacy occupies a prefabricated residential building on Heyrovského Street). The structural and technical obsolescence of both buildings now significantly limits the modernization and further development of the faculties’ activities. Due to the insufficient capacity of the existing premises, teaching activities are dispersed across multiple locations, increasing operational costs and causing time delays for both students and academic staff when moving between buildings. This further reduces the attractiveness of the educational environment. In the current highly competitive higher education landscape in the Czech Republic and across Europe, there is a risk of declining student enrolment and the loss of highly qualified staff to other, more modernly equipped institutions.
The objective of the project is therefore to consolidate the teaching activities of both faculties in a single location within the Charles University Campus in Hradec Králové. The site already includes the Teaching and Research Centre, completed in 2015, and, within the adjacent University Hospital complex, the Faculty of Medicine Teaching Centre, completed in 2005.
The close integration with the University Hospital Hradec Králové will further strengthen links with clinical practice, increase the proportion of teaching for senior students directly within the hospital grounds, and expand the involvement of practicing physicians from the hospital in teaching activities.
The two faculties are unique in the Czech Republic in providing education for military physicians and military pharmacists. These students attend classes at the University of Defence building located in the area, and at facilities within the University Hospital. The development of the faculties’ infrastructure in this location is therefore a logical step in fulfilling Charles University’s long-term efforts in Hradec Králové.
The shared facilities of the two faculties will also contribute to the development of closer cooperation between their departments, support the creation of new interdisciplinary educational programmes, and strengthen the synergy among leading research centres in medicine, biomedicine, natural sciences, and pharmacy. The project will create modern infrastructure that enhances the educational, scientific, and innovation potential of the Charles University Faculty of Pharmacy and Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Králové in the fields of medical, biomedical, natural science, and pharmaceutical research.
The project includes the construction of two interconnected buildings:
- The Central Building, financed from national sources, which will provide administrative facilities for both faculties, dining services for staff and students, and a portion of the teaching spaces.
- The Faculty Building, financed primarily from European sources, which will accommodate all teaching and research capacities of both faculties.
Both new buildings will each contain one underground floor, four above-ground floors, and a rooftop technical plant level. The Faculty Building will be connected to the Central Building at the basement level (Level -1), the ground floor (Level 1), and the first floor (Level 2). In addition, the Faculty Building will be connected at Level 2 to the Teaching and Research Centre (VaVC Zborovská) on the eastern side and to the Academic Bedrna Pavilion of the University Hospital Hradec Králové on the western side.
Key Project Parameters
- Gross enclosed volume: 272,900 m³
- Total usable floor area: 62,391 m²
- Number of students (simultaneous occupancy – design capacity): 2,515 persons
- Number of employees: 685 person
The tasks of the Charles University Campus in Hradec Králové are as follows:
- improving of study and work conditions of the faculties,
- support of interdisciplinary activities (educational programs, research programs),
- support of postgraduate and master study programs,
- perspective of the growth in the number of foreign students and also support of exchange study programs,
- support of international exchange study stays
- making conditions for the development of all life education,
- securing the development of research activity.