Transgas (building)

Transgas
Transgas
	Originally control room
	Location within Prague
Former names	Transgaz, Budovy Ústředního dispečinku tranzitního plynovodu, Světové odborové federace, Federálního ministerstva paliv a energetiky
General information
Status	Demolished
Architectural style	high tech, brutalism
Location	Prague, Czech Republic
Country	Czech Republic
Coordinates	50°4′42″N 14°25′59″E / 50.07833°N 14.43306°E
Elevation	225 m (738 ft)
Construction started	1972
Completed	1978
Inaugurated	1978
Demolished	2019–2020
Client	Czechoslovak government
Owner	HB Reavis
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Jiří Eisenreich, Jindřich Malátek, Václav Aulický
Other designers	Ivo Loos

Transgas was a high tech building with brutalist elements in the center of Prague, Czech Republic.^[1] It was built in 1978 and demolished in 2019. It consisted of a cubic part, which was dark grey. Its facade was covered by small cobble stones. The other two buildings were high with long windows and steel dark construction. The surrounding decoration is symbolically was out of gas pipeline tubes.

History

The building was commissioned by the Czechoslovak government, which agreed in 1970 to build a pipeline and deliver Soviet gas to western Europe. As the pipeline was called Transgas, the same name was given to the building used from 1978 as a control and dispatcher room. The architects and designers where Jiří Eisenreich, Jindřich Malátek, Václav Aulický and Ivo Loos (fountain).^[2] It was constructed in the years 1972 to 1978 on the site of apartment houses, which were previously demolished.^[3]

Demolition

In 2015, the complex was bought by Slovak developer group HB Reavis. The group decided to demolish the building and replace it with modern offices. There were attempts by different groups to release it as a cultural monument and they failed.^[1] In January 2017, art historians from Czech universities described the building as an exceptional example of brutalist architecture and requested Culture Minister Daniel Herman to prevent its demolition. They wrote, "In the context of Czech architecture of the latter half of the 20th century, it is an exceptional building that creatively follows up the period styles of Western technicism and brutalism."^[2]

In November 2017 the Czech Ministry of Culture approved the demolition so that a new office complex can be built on the site.^[4] Despite many protests and redemption effort from city of Prague,^[5] demolition of Transgas started in February 2019.^[6]