Prague will complete two cells on the riverbank according to the original architectural design

Prague - Prague will renovate two cubicles on the embankment and replace the furniture according to the original architectural design by Petr Janda. Today, the Prague councilors changed their decision from last year, in which they wanted to announce new architectural competitions for the remaining work. The primary reason was the high costs of reconstruction according to the original proposal. The reconstruction of the embankment began in 2018 and included, among other things, adjustments to the cubicles in the waterfront wall, which now house cafes and cultural spaces.

Today's decision by the councilors includes that cubicles number 3 and 8 will be repaired according to the original design, as well as furniture including, for example, drinking fountains, stands with bags for dog excrement, and ashtrays. For further potential adjustments, the city will announce new architectural competitions.

According to the councilor for property Adam Zábranský (Pirates), Prague never ordered the revitalization study of the embankments from architect Janda, and it was necessary to determine which parts will still be repaired according to his proposal and which will not. One of the reasons is to avoid legal disputes. That was, according to the councilor, the goal of last year's resolution.

"In 2015, the city won a contract for two toilet cubicles and related networks on Rašínovo embankment. That competition was won by architect Janda. And two years later, the council approved an updated study that it never ordered from architect Janda, for the entire area of the embankments," said Zábranský.

Last year's decision by the councilors to deviate from the original project sparked protests from the opposition and Janda. Therefore, Prague convened a joint meeting of politicians, city organizations, and the architect. According to the explanatory report, the result of the discussion was a recommendation that the adjustments of the last two cubicles and the installation of furniture be carried out according to Janda's design.

Zábranský said today that this will complete the renewal of the embankments. However, if the city wants to further develop them in the future, it can announce a new competition, and there will be no uncertainty about whether the project should be developed by Janda. The original proposal also included a project for river baths. The current city leadership has postponed that indefinitely.

In the future, however, legal disputes cannot be ruled out, as Janda, according to Zábranský, insists that his entire proposed concept is a unified author's work and that any future adjustments would require approval for additional projects. However, the city leadership does not agree, and according to the councilor, his stance is also confirmed by a legal opinion. "It is common practice that when architectural competitions are held, for example, for the revitalization of squares and similar, there is some outcome, but that does not mean that the reality will be exactly the same," he said.

According to Janda, the resulting approach does not correspond to the outcomes of the round table, and he also rejected Zábranský's statement today. He claims that the city's legal opinion does not say what the councilor asserts. "I have no interest in disputes with Prague and I am very disappointed with the politics that prioritizes imagined negative PR and damages the good name of Prague and the embankments, which serve as a positive model for the whole world," he stated.

The decision by the councilors was criticized by the head of the Prague ANO movement, Ondřej Prokop. "The city leadership wants to continue to fragment the project into pieces and Prague will face another season without completed cubicles and without the necessary furniture," he stated. According to him, there was consensus at the round table to complete the project according to the cohesive concept from 2017.

The adjustments to Prague's embankments have become more expensive, increasing from the originally planned 309.2 million to 470.3 million crowns. The reconstruction of one of the cubicles into toilets is expected to cost 30 million crowns. Councilors criticized this last year. Janda explained in September at the council meeting that the cubicle with a WC is technically the most complex, and 20 million of the total 30 will be spent on technical equipment because the cubicle contains a large number of network distributions for the entire Rašínovo embankment.

The already adjusted cubicles feature, among other things, entrances equipped with rings with glass inserts. Overall, according to the document approved last year, the design has proven to be both financially and operationally expensive and impractical in terms of energy consumption and maintenance and repairs. "The overall balance of the embankment's operation is significantly negative," Zábranský said last June.

The popular Prague embankments are located on Rašínovo, Hořejší, and Dvořákovo embankments, where the city also had the cubicles reconstructed. The embankments are especially a frequent destination for Praguers and visitors in the summer. Furthermore, a main cycling route A2 runs along the right bank.