Prague received a grant of 320 million CZK for the reconstruction of the so-called Pragerov's blocks

Prague - The Prague City Hall has received a grant of approximately 320 million korunas from the Ministry of the Environment for the reconstruction of the headquarters of the City Institute of Planning and Development (IPR) in the Emauzy complex. Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda (ODS) announced this today on the social network X. The reconstruction of the so-called Prager cubes is prepared, but in recent years the city has been addressing its financing due to high costs. According to the mayor, the City Hall has also obtained an additional 200 million korunas for energy savings in four schools.

According to the mayor, the ministry approved the grant last week. "It will include the replacement of the light outer shell, the installation of a new heating, cooling, and ventilation system, and the reconstruction of the interiors. In addition, a new photovoltaic power plant and a retention tank will be created," the mayor stated. "We are pleased with the allocation of the grant and hope it will help facilitate the quick start of the reconstruction," said IPR Director Ondřej Boháč in a statement to ČTK.

The modernist complex from the 1970s, designed by Karel Prager, is in a state of disrepair and the city has been preparing its renovation for several years. The City Hall already has a building permit and in 2022 issued a tender for a construction company, in which a commission selected the winning bidder last spring. However, the city council has not yet approved the result, and finance councillor Zdeněk Kovářík (ODS) has repeatedly expressed reservations about the repair costs and the return on investment.

A petition with nearly 4,000 signatures has been created demanding the start of repairs, primarily advocated by the opposition party Prague Sobě. The reconstruction has also been supported by the Czech Chamber of Architects, which states that the buildings are architecturally valuable. In January of this year, the representatives approved a resolution mandating the council to conduct an economic and operational evaluation of the reconstruction with the aim of reducing its overall financial demands so that it could begin this year.

The three administrative buildings nicknamed Prager's cubes were constructed in the garden of the Emauzy Monastery at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s. Upon completion, they housed the Project Institute of Construction of Prague, where the designer Karel Prager also worked, who is also the author of, for example, the building of the former Federal Assembly. The IPR has been located in the complex since 2013, and in 2017 established the Center for Architecture and Urban Planning (CAMP) in one of the buildings intended for the public.