In Brno-Židenice, a reconstruction of the funeral hall designed by architect Ruller is being prepared

Brno - The Brno-Židenice district is seeking a company for the reconstruction of the funeral hall designed by architect Ivan Ruller, who passed away in 2018. The hall has been closed for 15 years and is in poor condition, said the mayor of Židenice, Petr Kunc (Petr Kunc-Hlas pro Židenice), to ČTK today. According to him, the estimated costs for the repairs are around 33 million korunas. Most of it is expected to be covered by a subsidy from the city. Interested parties can submit offers until the end of November, and the city hall is ready to sign a contract by the end of the year. The company will then have two years to complete the work.

The hall was built in 1983. "It is one of the very significant buildings by architect Ivan Ruller. It is one of the three most important funeral halls in former Czechoslovakia. It contains a number of unique works," Kunc stated.

According to him, the hall needed repairs as early as the 1990s and has been closed since 2007. "Later, there were plans to demolish it, but there was no money for that. Last year, we were entrusted with the hall as a municipality and since then we have been working on the project," Kunc said. He added that the hall has an estimated capacity of over 100 people.

The original part of the assignment also included restoration work on the artworks. "In the end, we separated this work and it is being carried out separately on the paintings and stained glass. We are also being helped by Ivan Ruller's son, Tomáš, who is the author of one of the works in the funeral hall," Kunc said.

The city hall received a grant from the magistrate for the reconstruction and project amounting to almost 28 million korunas. "The rest will be financed from the Židenice budget. If the price exceeds the estimate, we would adjust the project to make it slightly smaller, but we want to start implementing it," Kunc said.

Architect Ivan Ruller passed away four years ago at the age of 91. His signature is evident in buildings such as the Janáček Theatre and the Rondo ice hockey hall. The complete list of works that Ruller enriched the collection of modern architecture includes over 50 items. He was a student of Bohuslav Fuchs and Bedřich Rozehnal, and was heavily influenced by functionalism, modernism, and interwar culture in general, as well as French brutalism.