Should Prague build a new philharmonic? • RESPECT
The Danish studio Bjarke Ingels Group won the architectural competition for the new Vltava Philharmonic. The building is to start construction on the left bank of the Vltava in the capital in five years, it should be in ten years and the cost is estimated at six billion. Even the fact that the results of the public tender were solemnly announced by the mayor Zdeněk Hřib and supervised by the municipal Institute of Planning and Development (IPR) does not guarantee that the building will actually be built.
It is already certain that the costs are underestimated at a time of sharp increases in energy and building materials, and it will depend on where Prague takes the money. It is also not clear who will sit in Hřib’s chair in 2027 and whether he will have the same interest in the construction as he did. It is already possible to ask the basic question: Should Prague build a new philharmonic? The answer is not as simple as it might seem.
Yes he has
The heart of a culture lover is dancing. It is unbelievable, but in thirty-three years of freedom, we have not been able to build anything out of public money in Prague or anywhere else that can be visited for culture. As for the capital, its biggest post-revolutionary attractions (DOX Gallery or the recently Kunsthalle Prague) were created only thanks to private investors. And it’s not just about cultural buildings. Just look at how many public buildings and complexes the First Republic Czechoslovakia managed to build across the country in just twenty years. That comparison is frustrating. The Vltava Philharmonic should be a coveted encouragement that what happened a hundred years ago,…