Jeans king's abandoned villa becomes Czech billionaire's HQ

Czech billionaire Igor Fajt, founder of the investment group Jet Investment, has turned a half-derelict ruin on Strazni vrch hill in Brno into his company's modern office complex — complete with an art collection, a garden and panoramic views of Brno.

The site's history has its own drama. In the 19th century a German school stood here, later a popular tavern overlooking the Svratka valley. In the 1990s the building was rebuilt by the eccentric entrepreneur Rudolf Hosna, known as the “king of stonewashed jeans.” After his bankruptcy and the ensuing enforcement proceedings, the mansion was left without an owner, burned down twice, and became a shelter for homeless people and drug users.

Change began after 2020, when Fajt bought the plot through his vehicle Drako Capital. The original plan was to preserve at least part of the old villa, but the building turned out to be so badly deteriorated that architects from the RAW studio essentially built a new structure — a minimalist cubic building with a regular grid of windows and a low, teardrop-shaped wing opening onto the garden.

The upper floors offer views of Spilberk Castle, the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, the Riviera recreation area and the city motorway. To dampen city noise, the architects used frameless aluminium windows. Inside: concrete, oak veneer, travertine and works of art — the atrium is adorned with a sculpture by the American artist Alice Aycock, while the corridor and meeting-room walls hold dozens of paintings from a collection Fajt has been building for a quarter of a century.

The grounds include a sports court with artificial turf, a gazebo built from the same materials as the interior, and a car park with a green roof instead of an underground garage. One particular engineering challenge: the Pisarky Tunnel runs directly beneath the building, which meant installing sensors during construction to detect even the slightest ground movement.

The complex has a built-up area of 950 square metres and a volume of almost 4,700 cubic metres. The Jet Investment team moved into the new building in June this year. According to Fajt himself, the uniqueness of the site played a key role: “Its atmosphere and genius loci are outstanding for our company's office too — simply brilliant,” the billionaire said, referring not only to the city views but also to the forest surrounding almost the entire complex.