The conversion of the General Pension Institute into apartments has building permission

Prague – The owners of the former trade union building in Prague 3, now renamed the House of Joy, have obtained a building permit for its conversion into rental apartments. Today, the Seznam Zprávy server reported this. The Žižkov property is owned by the owners of the bathroom group Siko, which, according to the server's information, plans to build more than 600 small apartments there, supplemented by shops, galleries, multifunctional halls, and sports facilities instead of the former offices.

"After nearly six years, a valid building permit for the conversion project of the House of Joy was obtained this June," confirmed Tomáš Vala, CEO of Siko, to Seznam Zprávy.

The design of the reconstruction is based on the proposal by architects David Wittasek and Jiří Řezák from the QARTA Architektura studio, and the concept is reportedly aimed primarily at students of the nearby University of Economics (VŠE), which is reflected in the area of the apartments around 23 m². Currently, there are nearly 700 offices inside the building, and the only renovated space is the Přítomnost cinema, which operates in the former social hall, Seznam Zprávy stated.

The family purchased the building in 2018 for about one billion crowns from the trade unions. The server stated that, according to the estimate at that time, the reconstruction was expected to cost around 1.5 billion crowns, which, however, will likely no longer be relevant due to rising construction costs.

The former House of Trade Unions was originally created as a General Pension Institute between 1932 and 1934. Due to its height of 52 meters, the building is often referred to as the first Czech skyscraper. In 1951, it began to be taken over by the Central Council of Trade Unions, and in 1990 it was transferred from the ownership of the Revolutionary Trade Union Movement to the ownership of the newly established unions. Since 1968, the functionalist building, designed by architects Josef Havlíček and Karel Honzík, has been protected as a historical monument.