The renovation of the Tugendhat villa is postponed, it probably won't start this year

Brno - The long-postponed and much-anticipated renovation of the rare Brno Tugendhat Villa will experience further delays, and it is possible that it will not start at all this year. The Brno city council did not discuss the planned increase in repair costs at its meeting today, which was the last before the elections. Consequently, the city cannot sign a contract with the construction company that won the tender.
The city council recommended that the council increase the costs from 112 to 170 million crowns. The opposition Social Democrats and other council members deemed the price for the renovation of the UNESCO-listed monument too high, and they demanded more precise information. The councilors did not provide this, so the opposition did not allow the relevant item to be included in the council's agenda. "As long as the council does not approve the budget costs, we cannot sign the contract, and thus we cannot start construction," said Deputy Mayor Miroslav Hošek (ODS) to ČTK today.
The new council, after the municipal elections, will deal with the renovation of the villa. "I think this will not be a topic for the first councils; there may be more bureaucratic obstacles, the reconstruction will probably be prolonged and become more expensive," Hošek believes. This fall, builders were supposed to start work on the disrupted statics of the villa. "It was absolutely essential to begin with the statics before winter. If the council approves it sometime in mid-November, it will already be a bit late. I consider this a mistake," said councilor Barbora Javorová (KDU-ČSL) to ČTK.
The postponement of the decision is defended by the head of the CSSD council group, Roman Onderka. "We were not willing to vote if we do not have all available information. We agreed that it is better to withdraw the material than to vote against it," Onderka told ČTK, adding that the price seems excessively high to the Social Democrats. However, according to the councilors, it would be more appropriate to approve the increased costs, start with the repairs, and make cuts in the budget only during the construction.
The tender won by the construction company Tocháček is still valid. The uncertainties surrounding the renovation of the villa are also fueled by a recent decision of the Regional Court in Brno, which stated that the Brno magistrate erred in the tender for the project documentation of the reconstruction. The Office for the Protection of Competition will reassess the tender.
The Tugendhat Villa in Brno's Černá pole was designed in 1928 by the world-renowned German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. According to experts, the building is unique both in its spatial concept and in the selection of materials and technical solutions. The renovation using a conservation method aims to return the villa to the appearance it had immediately after its completion.

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> Court: Brno erred, the tender for the renovation of Tugendhat Villa is not in order [27.9.2006]
> The court will assess today the verdict of the UOHS regarding the contract for the renovation of Tugendhat Villa [27.9.2006]
> Brno councilors approved the increase in funds for the renovation of Tugendhat Villa [8.9.2006]
> The renovation of Tugendhat Villa will become more expensive due to the fidelity to details [11.8.2006]
> The reconstruction of Tugendhat Villa is supposed to start in the autumn [16.6.2006]
> Symposium MATERIALITY with the support of Xella [24.5.2006]
> Tugendhat Villa awaits repair, current preparations are mapped by an exhibition [15.5.2006]