Kakha Kaladze on the statement of the Italian architectural group - No letter has been received - the City Hall issued a permit to dismantle the Rike Tubes, what business activities the private owner conducts is not within our competence
No letter has been received. If a letter had been received, it would have received an appropriate response from the relevant services of the municipality, - the mayor of the capital, Kakha Kaladze, stated in response to a question regarding the statement issued by the Italian architectural group Studia Fuksas, the author of the so-called Rike Tubes, where the company writes that the studio has repeatedly made a proposal to work with the government, however, the offers remained unanswered.
According to Kaladze, the building belongs to a private owner and it was he who made the decision to dismantle it.
"Regarding the so-called Rike Tubes, a decision has been made. This was an absolutely useless building. At the time, tens of millions of GEL were spent on this project, which was an unjustified step. Now the building belongs to a private owner, and he made the decision. The municipality or the government has nothing to do with this issue. You can contact the private owner with similar questions. The author of the project himself can also conduct similar negotiations with the private owner, if they need to move the building to another place or what kind of business they want to conduct, this is not within our competence.
The application to us was for dismantling. You know that something like this cannot happen without the permission of the Tbilisi City Hall Architecture Service. The decision to dismantle was made together with the Cultural Heritage Protection Council.
The Tbilisi City Hall issued a permit for the dismantling of the so-called Rike Tubes, and what kind of business the private owner conducts is up to them. It is not within our competence,” Kakha Kaladze noted.
The Italian architectural group Studia Fuksas, released a statement saying that the demolition of Rike Tubes is “a big step backwards culturally.”
“In recent months, the studio has repeatedly offered to work with the Georgian government to find alternative ways that would preserve this iconic building and find a new function, and avoid what we believe would be a premature and irreparable demolition.
Unfortunately, these offers remained unanswered…
The loss of an internationally recognized and award-winning architectural masterpiece would be a big step backwards culturally,” reads the statement.
