Prague Files for Permission to Build the Vltava Philharmonic — and for CZK 5bn of Ground Around It

Prague has applied for permission to build the Vltava Philharmonic. The project's spokesperson Eliška Marková announced it to ČTK in a press release on 31 August; preparation is run for the city hall by its contributory organisation Pražská developerská společnost (PDS).

The application is larger than the building. It covers the concert hall itself, estimated at around CZK 12.33 billion excluding VAT, plus works on the surrounding area worth roughly a further CZK 5 billion excluding tax — public spaces, a new Vltava embankment and a series of transport structures. Prague Morning describes the same application as covering the building together with surrounding public spaces, transport infrastructure and connections to the existing metro, tram, cycling and pedestrian networks.

The two accounts differ on one point worth flagging. Archiweb, reporting ČTK, gives the CZK 12.33 billion as the construction cost including fit-out; Prague Morning gives the same figure as excluding VAT and equipment costs. We have not resolved which is right and neither figure should be quoted as settled.

The dates that now matter

The city expects to receive permission in the first quarter of next year. It then intends to tender for a construction company, and if nothing goes wrong, building starts in the first quarter of 2028 — a year after the permit. On that sequence, trial operation of the philharmonic would begin in 2033.

That is a long chain of conditionals, and each link has slipped before on this project. The building was designed by the Danish studio BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group on the basis of an international competition; Prague Morning dates the competition win to May 2022, which puts more than four years between the winning design and the permit application.

What is in the building

Three basement levels and six above ground. The programme is a music centre with five halls, creative space, restaurants, further operations and back-of-house. It is to house the Czech Philharmonic, whose existing quarters in the Rudolfinum are described as technically and capacity-wise outdated and unable to support full development; the Prague Symphony Orchestra FOK; and the music collections of Prague's municipal library.

Petr Urbánek, PDS director, made the case that the application is about the district as much as the hall:

This is not only a new cultural building, but a project closely connected to public space, to transport and technical infrastructure and to the future development of the whole locality. Submitting the application for permission of the scheme is an important step not only for the Vltava Philharmonic itself, but also for the transformation of the neglected Bubny-Zátory area.

— Petr Urbánek, director, Pražská developerská společnost

That is a fair reading of the numbers. Five billion crowns of embankment, streets and public space is not a landscaping budget appended to a concert hall; it is roughly two-fifths again on top of the building, and it is the part that determines whether Bubny-Zátory becomes a district or stays a site with a landmark on it.

The part that is still open

Funding is not settled. The city is negotiating a state contribution, and support for building the philharmonic is written into the government's programme statement — a political commitment, not a line in a budget. Prague has also set up an endowment fund towards the construction costs.

So the permit application is a real milestone and a real risk marker at the same time. Everything in the procedural chain now runs on the assumption that roughly CZK 17 billion will be available when the tender is awarded, and the sources do not say where the state's share of it comes from or how large it would be. The permit is the easier of the two things the city still needs.