Club For Old Prague protests against the demolition of the Chemapol building

Prague - The Club for Old Prague is protesting against the owner's intention to demolish the building of the former foreign trade enterprise Chemapol-Investa in Prague's Vršovice. The building is currently called Kodaňská Office Center. The work of architects Zdena Nováková and Dagmar Šestáková from 1967 to 1970 is considered by the club to be one of the most important examples of Czechoslovak architecture from the 1960s. A petition against the planned demolition has also been created, which has garnered three hundred signatures, including those of architects Emil Přikryl, David Vávra, and architecture theorists Zdeněk Lukeš and Osamu Okamura.

The club addressed its protest not only to the management of the company that owns the building but also to the mayor of Prague, the leadership of Prague 10, the Prague branch of the National Heritage Institute, and its commission for 20th-century monuments. "The Club for Old Prague calls on each of the recipients of this statement to do their utmost to avert it," stated Švácha. The responses of the contacted entities are being collected by ČTK.

Buildings from the 1960s and 70s are becoming the subject of interest for architectural historians as well as laypeople, but their new owners often see them as obstacles to business development. They want to demolish them, citing their energy inefficiency stemming from the time and conditions of their creation. Demolitions are usually only stopped by declaring a building a cultural monument, which can be done by the state. However, owners regard this step as intentional.

Experts do not agree on the issue of heritage protection for buildings from the second half of the 20th century. The National Heritage Institute (NPÚ) held a conference last week to highlight the importance of buildings from that era from its perspective. NPÚ director Naďa Goryczková stated that by the end of the year, the institute will submit a list of 95 buildings to the Ministry of Culture, for which monument protection can be considered. However, the institute's management does not know the status of previously submitted proposals.

"Proposals are also submitted by other institutions and individuals. The NPÚ is only contacted by the ministry at the stage of initiating proceedings, and that is sometimes with a significant time delay," Goryczková said in response to ČTK's inquiry. The initiation of proceedings for declaring a monument can sometimes take several years. This was the case, for example, with the Prague Intercontinental Hotel, for which the ministry refused to grant protection this year.

Architect and architectural historian Petr Vorlík from the Faculty of Architecture at Czech Technical University in Prague, who specializes in the history of 20th-century architecture, told ČTK that in the case of the hotel, it is such a key building that despite its reconstruction, there is a prevailing belief among experts that it should still be protected. Vorlík himself has submitted many proposals to the ministry for declaring buildings as monuments. Even he, as a proposer, does not receive information about the progress of the proceedings.

As a result of the state's refusal to protect buildings, the Transgas complex was recently demolished in Prague. In June of this year, however, the New Stage of the National Theatre and the Planetarium in Stromovka were declared monuments. "What troubles me most personally is the inaction regarding Strojimport, which I submitted in 2014. It is an iconic building, and there is consensus among historians, plus it has retained its original façade," Vorlík stated. "In 2020, we submitted a series of buildings from the 1980s with colleagues; the proposals were created as part of a grant from the Ministry of Culture. I am curious how the Ministry of Culture will approach this as the declaring authority," he added. Even after this experience, we are focusing more on education and transforming the overall societal awareness of the values of architecture from this era. Ultimately, it always comes down to the approach of the owners and architects, the expert concluded.

The authors of the Chemapol building won an architectural competition in 1966. They approached their work in the spirit of post-war American buildings by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and achieved an expression that, when compared to similar works in Czechoslovakia – such as the Strojimport building in Prague-Vinohrady from 1961–1967 by the team of Zdeněk Kuna – closely resembles Mies's buildings, both in formal refinement and in the excellent design of the surrounding area of the new building, stated architectural historian Rostislav Švácha on behalf of the Club for Old Prague.

"If the Chemapol building has not yet become the subject of heritage protection interest, it is undoubtedly because no one from heritage and architectural circles even considered that such an important architectural work should be demolished," stated the Club for Old Prague.