UMPRUM will start building a center in the center of Prague for 420 million CZK

Prague - Soon, reconstruction of the former elementary school in Mikulandská Street in the center of Prague into technological and workshop facilities for students of the Czech University of Arts and Design (UMPRUM) should begin. The school signed a contract with Metrostav in early March, which is expected to start construction estimated at around 420 million crowns within days, at most weeks. It should be completed in a year and a half. Jindřich Smetana, the rector of UMPRUM, told ČTK. The center, located next to the recently opened National Palace, will be partially open to the public.

The reconstruction of the original Neo-Renaissance school complex will maintain the original height of four above-ground floors and the building will undergo minimal changes from an external perspective. The original building will house workshops for various fields, which will only be accessible to students and staff of the school. In the courtyard, new spaces will be created, including a large hall on the ground floor, which will also serve as a gallery and for other activities of the school directed towards the public. A rooftop terrace will also be created, which will be open to the public.

According to the rector, the project has been in preparation since 2012, and the intention to build a new center with workshops for the school is twenty years old. In the 1990s, UMPRUM lost its network of workshops located throughout Prague. Since then, it has had them provisionally in its historic building in Jan Palach Square, which, according to Smetana, serves excellently and will continue to serve as a theoretical and intellectual base. However, the school needs new spaces to concentrate technologies and workshops for all taught fields. The author of the new center's project is architect Ivan Kroupa, who is also the creator of the DOX Center for Contemporary Art, for example.

In connection with the preparation of the project, the rector criticizes the Prague branch of the National Heritage Institute (NPÚ). Although it only has an advisory vote in the building discussions, according to Smetana, it has delayed the preparation with various obstructions by three years, which has also reflected in the higher price.

According to the rector, it is necessary to keep the university in the city center, thus maintaining life there, especially considering the low number of residents. However, it is necessary to transform existing buildings, as there is a lack of available parcels. "That is what the heritage protectors do not understand at all," says Smetana.

According to the head of the Prague branch of NPÚ, Ondřej Šefců, the UMPRUM project retains only a minimum of the original historically valuable building. "Our office defended the values that we must defend in the area of the Prague Heritage Reservation. In this case, it concerns a valuable school building from the 19th century, which is to be almost entirely demolished based on the project and replaced with new construction," Šefců told ČTK. The board of experts for heritage care at the municipality and the scientific board of the general director of NPÚ have expressed negative opinions about the UMPRUM plan, according to him.

In the past, the school considered building a campus in Ďáblice, which, according to the management, would force students to travel between the center and the periphery and lead to the separation of individual fields. Therefore, the school ultimately chose the path of reconstructing the buildings in Mikulandská. Right next to the building being reconstructed, last year, the company Sebre completed the construction of a new office building. Through its courtyard, which is freely accessible from Národní Street, it will be possible to also reach the new center.