The architects' chamber objects to the purchase through which Brno will acquire starter apartments

Brno - The Chamber of Architects criticizes the purchase of starter apartments for young families, which was approved by Brno's councilors this week. The method reportedly did not allow for quality architecture. According to the architects, Brno is not searching for, and therefore will not find, inventive and innovative solutions that would bring wise architecture to the city. This was written in an open letter to the mayor by the director of the Czech Chamber of Architects, Tamara Čuříková. The mayor's deputy, Oliver Pospíšil (ČSSD), rejected the criticisms. He labeled the Chamber as a lobbying organization that is primarily interested in securing as many contracts for architects as possible.
    The councilors approved the purchase of 84 starter apartments for 151 million Czech crowns excluding VAT. The city hall will buy them from two developers. According to Pospíšil, the city wanted to take advantage of the situation in the real estate market affected by the economic crisis.
    The Chamber described the purchase method as a wasted opportunity. According to them, the city should have proceeded with a transparent architectural competition. "When awarding public contracts in construction, the criterion should not be the lowest price, but quality and sustainability emphasizing architectural solutions," wrote Čuříková.
    According to Pospíšil, on the contrary, the city chose the path of "getting a lot of value for the least money." He stated that the city has no ambitions to win architectural awards for starter housing. "Their logic is that who other than the public sector should spend money on beautiful things. I would say that this is somewhat against public opinion, which believes that public funds should be saved as much as possible," he stated.
    Opposition councilor Jaroslav Kacer (TOP 09) criticized the city hall for allegedly too little attention to monitoring expenditures. He labeled the purchase as a "scrap trade-in for developers," arguing that the city is buying apartments at market price, along with the land. In fact, the city owns land on which it could have built apartments.
    The city hall originally wanted to allocate 300 million Czech crowns for the purchase of starter apartments. About half of that amount remains unused. According to Pospíšil, several solutions are being considered for the future. Either the competition for the purchase of apartments will be repeated with different rules, or the city will build more apartments on its own land. After the experience with the first deal, the deputy favors the second option. "There is a certain disappointment with the number of offers; I expected a slightly better result. But even so, the prices are not bad," he stated.