Praha 10 plans to build an apartment building instead of the Eden cultural center

Prague – The Prague 10 City Hall plans to demolish the vacant cultural center Eden and build a residential building with apartments, a community hall, and a community center in its place. Jan Hamrník, a spokesperson for the municipality, informed CTK about this. The proposal is based on an architectural competition that the city hall held for a solution for the decaying building and its surroundings. The architectural studio ohboi and the design company JIKA-cz were successful in the competition. The proposal also includes modifications to public spaces, including the adjacent Vršovická Street.

The former cultural house Eden, built in 1980, has been unused for nearly 20 years and is in poor structural condition. City hall representatives previously stated that its reconstruction would be problematic from both a financial and technical perspective. According to the winning proposal, the new building with municipal rental apartments will be located directly on the site of the current center, with a square planned to the east of the building and a smaller park to the south.

According to information from the city hall, the modifications will also concern Vršovická Street, where the city hall plans to narrow traffic lanes and plant a row of trees next to the grassy tramway strip. "This is an urban concept with clearly defined public space; I see a great connection to the existing structure of the housing estate," stated Martin Valovič (ODS), the deputy mayor of Prague 10.

Six competitors advanced to the second round of the competition, where participants refined their proposals among 16 submissions. The city hall will now negotiate the final shape of the modifications with the authors and will consider ideas from teams that placed in other positions.

The leadership of Prague 10 is also preparing the reconstruction of the adjacent city hall building, which is estimated to cost 1.1 billion crowns. The municipality intends to cover the costs mostly with a grant from the Ministry of the Environment and a half-billion interest-free loan from the Prague magistrate. It is still unclear when the work will begin; the city hall initially wanted to start it last year, but preparations were delayed. The opposition parties TOP 09 and ANO criticize the leadership of Prague 10 for the delays, which they claim will lead to significant cost increases.