The Heritage Council opposes the planned reconstruction of the former trade union house.

Prague - The Czech National Committee of ICOMOS has opposed planned interventions into the building of the former General Pension Institute in Prague's Žižkov district. According to experts associated with this organization, these interventions are unacceptable and they demand that the owners of the building or the authors of the reconstruction respect the expert opinion of the National Heritage Institute. This was stated today by Jan Štoll, spokesperson for the Czech National Committee of ICOMOS, the International Council on Monuments and Sites. The building has long been known as a seat for trade unionists, and today its owners refer to it as Radost.

The planned reconstruction of the functionalist building on Winston Churchill Square aims to raise the extreme wings of the building. The heritage preservation department of the Prague City Hall approved the reconstruction on October 1 of last year. The owner of the building, which previously belonged to the trade unions, is now, according to public sources, the company Dům Žižkov. The new owner intends to create rental apartments, offices, commercial spaces, and storage in the building, and a cinema has opened, along with a terrace that has been made accessible. The owners present their reconstruction plans on the website. Current reactions from the company are being sought by ČTK.

Last year, three dozen experts and representatives from the academic sphere, as well as the Club for Old Prague, protested against the reconstruction. The building by architects Josef Havlíček and Karel Honzík gained international acclaim following its completion in 1934, an echo that, according to advocates for preservation, no other Czech modern building has achieved. In 1958, it was declared a cultural monument.

“The planned modifications should in no case affect those properties for which the building was recognized for its exceptional value upon its registration in the list of cultural monuments. Interventions that significantly change the nature of the layout and damage the preserved interiors with authentic elements are undesirable,” stated Václav Girsa, president of the ICOMOS national committee, today.

“Increasing the main building or the side bodies of the building by additional floors is absolutely inappropriate, not only because of the degradation of the external composition of masses, which represents a fundamental part of the architectural value of the object, but also due to negative impacts in terms of broader visual contexts, with the disruption of panoramic views from the base of Žižkov,” Girsa added.

Art historians and other experts from domestic universities reached out to the Minister of Culture at the end of last year to initiate a review of the Prague City Hall's decision that permitted the reconstruction. The letter was signed by figures such as Richard Biegel, director of the Institute of Art History at Charles University, Jan Kristek, dean of the Faculty of Architecture at the Brno University of Technology, Osamu Okamura, dean of the Faculty of Art and Architecture at the Technical University in Liberec, and Jindřich Vybíral, rector of the AAAD in Prague. The request for a review procedure was submitted by the local office of the National Heritage Institute in Prague on November 19. However, it has not yet been initiated.