Greens: We must choose the company that will repair Tugendhat based on price

Brno - In the selection process for the company that will restore the protected Tugendhat villa in Brno, the main criterion should be price. The Greens in the city council will advocate for this, said Deputy Mayor Martin Ander (SZ) to reporters today. According to him, this is the only way to ensure that the selection process is transparent and that unsuccessful participants do not appeal against its results. Appeals and legal disputes had delayed the previous selection process, which started five years ago, and ultimately it was canceled.
    "We will fight for the most important criterion to be the cost of reconstruction," said Ander. He believes that other criteria will also appear in the competition, primarily the timeline. However, he cannot imagine that the starting date for construction work would hold the highest weight, as it would directly favor the company Omnia, which won the previously canceled competition and has project documentation prepared for the restoration of the Tugendhat villa.
    "If the criteria are set in a way that could raise doubts about equal treatment, someone will definitely file a complaint with the antitrust office," said Ander. He added that then the trouble with the prolonged selection process could repeat itself.
    The city council decided this week to announce a selection process directly for a construction company that must secure a project approved by heritage authorities. They believe this will help shorten the deadlines that the city hall would have to adhere to in the case of two consecutive competitions. "We have already tested the concept of the competition, where both the project and construction work are competed for, so-called turnkey construction, on other Brno buildings. For example, the reconstruction of the incinerator was competed this way," said Ander. He believes this is advantageous in terms of price. The contractor guarantees that for a certain technology, they will complete the project for an agreed amount of money.
    Brno has managed the Tugendhat villa since the mid-1990s, and the restoration has been planned for eight years. However, due to disputes among the competition participants regarding the designer, neither restoration nor construction work has yet begun. The villa is the only Czech building of modern art listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List and the only such monument from Brno. The delay in repairs last year urged the descendants of the original owners to apply for the return of the villa. The representatives rejected this.