Praha lacks a new concert hall, a location is currently being sought

Will Prague have a new concert hall? - photo: Opera house in Oslo

Prague - Prague lacks a modern concert hall that meets the world's standard in terms of acoustic and operational qualities. This was agreed upon by most architects contacted by ČTK. However, among the experts are those who fear that such a construction funded by public sources would burden budgets in the future as well. The possibility of building a new concert hall in Prague is being considered by the city leadership and the Association for the Construction of a New Concert Hall in Prague.
    A purely concert hall has not been built in Prague for a hundred years, since the opening of the Municipal House in 1912. It was only last year that the Prague Conservatory received a new concert hall, but it primarily serves students and has a capacity of 333 seats. An architectural competition was held in the 1960s for a building that was to be located at Republic Square, replacing a barracks.
    In recent years, an initiative has emerged from people in the music industry, and two years ago a coordination committee for the construction of a new hall was established at the City Hall. This year it has undergone personnel changes and is currently debating the location. Six options are on the table - Victory Square, Sokolovska, Klárov, Těšnov, Bubny railway station, and Špejchar, with discussions also including Štvanice.
    Architect Ondřej Císler, who recently completed a doctoral thesis on the topic of concert halls in Prague, believes that a building of such significance should become a part of the center of Prague, meaning it should be confronted with the historical context. He sees Klárov as the only suitable location from those considered.
    "Half of the selected locations are close to a thoroughfare, which will never be a dignified context for such an institution. Other locations require extensive investments to create a functioning city around them. Almost none of the chosen locations has a direct connection to the city center and the Vltava River, which is a symbol of our musical tradition," the architect believes.
    Architects do not have a unified opinion on the location of the hall. They agree, however, that the construction of a concert hall is an opportunity to bring quality contemporary architecture to Prague. "A historic city cannot be closed off to modern architecture; otherwise, it stops evolving and stagnates. The appropriateness of the architect's approach is, of course, the first question," says Adam Halíř from the studio Projektil architekti, which has successfully completed the National Technical Library and other public buildings.
    "The quality of the architecture of a public institution lies in the kind of public space it brings to the given urban location. It is essential to persuade the public that architecture is not evaluated based on its appearance, but rather on how it is experienced," adds his colleague Roman Brychta. Both view Špejchar and its connection to Letná, or possibly Bubny, which generally await significant changes, as suitable places from the proposed options.
    Architect and urban planner Igor Kovačević agrees with contemporary architecture in the historic center. "We will only convince the public if we build it, but we have to build architecture, not just a building. The greatest probability for the emergence of architecture lies in an international architectural competition, and for the competition to find fertile ground, it must be supported by a strong politician," he reminds. According to him, the question is whether Prague has such a strong politician.
    However, based on a comparison of the population of various metropolises and the sizes of their main concert halls, the architect does not believe that Prague necessarily needs a new hall. "It might be better to distribute two to three billion potential costs into live art rather than into a construction that would then burden the budget with its operation," he opines. "But if the political representation decided on that, it is their right and they have the mandate for it," he said. However, he would first test the political representation, which has not built a single structure in Prague with public funds in the last 20 years, on Štvanice and its future form.
    "The most important aspect of this construction is the location, and therefore it should either be decided by a politician who will take political responsibility for it, or a process should be established to seek this location involving a broad and expert public," the architect believes. Without such a process, he argues, Prague risks spending millions on preparing the construction, but future politicians may be intimidated by the prospect that the public will not agree with the selected location. "And we have another exercise for architects, like the completion of the Old Town Hall, which politicians always bring up as an electoral bait," he reminds.

Table: Capacity of major concert halls and population in the city without agglomeration

Concert Hall	Capacity	City	Population
The Oslo Opera House	1364	Oslo	613,285
Rudolfinum	1100	Prague	1,241,664
Casa da Música	1238	Porto	1,397,805
The Walt Disney Concert Hall	2265	Los Angeles	3,792,621
Royal Albert Hall	5200	London	8,174,100
National Centre for the Performing Arts	5452	Beijing	19,612,368