The first Prague skyscraper gets a new coat.Reconstruction of joy will cost over a billion

The luster of Joy is long gone

The fifty-two-meter-high functionalist building Dom Radost became a prominent part of the Prague skyline in 1934. At that time, the General Pension Institute was located in the eleven-story building. Even today, the building offers walk-through offices, spectacular corridors and an unmistakable ceramic facade, but the shine is there and Radost certainly does not please anyone with its appearance.

Dům Radost was bought in 2018 for one billion by the Val family, who are the owners of the Siko bathroom empire, and with them the investor Martin Louda, who is known to the public, for example, as the owner of the FK Viktoria Žižkov club, who is seeking the purchase of a football stadium in Prague 3 City Hall Seifertova street and land. "We, as investors, found the building very interesting. With its location, its architecture and its potential," Martin Louda told Seznam Zprávy.

The offices will become apartments

The planned reconstruction of Radosta is expected to cost over one billion. "The fundamental change is that we want to make a multi-functional house from a mono-functional house. There should be community rental housing, restaurants, space for services, relaxation and culture," Louda describes, adding that a significant change should be the use of the building. 650 offices should be replaced by residential units.

The inspiration for the use of the building came from Amsterdam or Berlin. "Individual sub-offices will become residential units. We will clean and remodel the space according to the new concept. It works out to 23 square meters. They will have separate social facilities, entrance from the central corridor, a small kitchen, a workplace and a bed. It's a starting part where you can start operating in cities and then use the services on the lower floors," says architect Jiří Řezák. The price for renting such a smaller apartment could range between six and seven thousand crowns per month per person.

The building should have a gallery and several offices, but also shops, services, a rooftop restaurant and a terrace. There is already a renovated art cinema Přítomnost in the House of Joy.

The last two stamps and the two-year reconstruction

65 of the necessary 67 stamps have already been obtained by the reconstruction project, only the National Monument Institute is waiting. However, the memorialists partly allowed and partly excluded the study. "The changes in the volume of the building, its expansion and certain roofing and the development of the courtyards are mainly controversial," explains Jan Holeček, head of the Department of Conservation of the Monumental Fund from the NPÚ.

The house will have to be repaired as a whole. "For us, the reconstruction plan is for two years, and then it will take another six months to move in and furnish the house," concluded Martin Louda.