Cultural Centre Dúbravka

The initial motivation to create the building was the idea to establish a full-featured, all-purpose cultural and social centre for the community and visitors in the given residential area. The building is characterised by a logical layout elaborated by the author, reflecting on the composition of the architectural volumes. Under the influence of a necessary renovation, several interventions have been performed over the past decades that partially also changed the visual character of the interior spaces. As a result, the current interiors are a combination of original and newly applied interior elements and materials. Although not all the additional adjustments account for the criteria in the light of the entire art harmony and the exquisite workmanship of the details, the inner building continues to reveal some surviving values and characteristics of the original expression style to date. These are predominantly present in the vast spaces of the foyers, halls, furniture and individual building interior details. 

After a detailed mapping of the selected spaces, Andrej Jakubec comments: “The upper and the lower foyers are interconnected via two generous staircases with a massive metal and glass railing that complements the sculptural designed metal-glass ceiling lamps producing a ceremonial impression. The lower foyer houses a black and golden sculpture visible right from the building entrance. The interior is supplemented with a terrazzo floor and aluminium-slat suspended ceilings. The floor in the upper foyer and the staircase floor are tiled; one of the walls has wooden panelling. Above the staircases is a visible fragment of a wooden grid suspended ceiling, a characteristic element of the interiors in the second half of the 20th century. All floors in the Cultural Centre are original, except for the new carpets in some of the rooms. [4]    

“The hall spaces are named after their prevailing characteristic colours. The biggest-size of the rooms is the Red Room (Great Hall), accessible from the 2nd floor. Red is used as painting colour on the wood panelling in the front part and on the rear wall; the preserved entrance and emergency exit wooden doors of the hall and the stage curtains are also red-coloured. In addition, red is used on the grid ceilings along the auditorium. The flat ceiling surface in the background is painted black for bigger contrast and to optically cover the technical equipment. The walls have beige panelling of U-shaped segments. Technical controls are hidden behind a door, whereby slats from identical material are used. The original carpet is beige and yellow. The Orange Room (Small Hall) accessible from the 1st floor is reserved for smaller performances, meetings, discussions or smaller conferences. Everything in the room is original, except for the carpet and the wooden mouldings used to end the upper part of the podium. It received the name Orange Room because of the characteristic paint on the wooden wall and ceiling panelling. The suspended ceiling formed by altering solid and perforated square wood segments along with a lamps raster is the main dominating feature of the room. The brown seats, red and orange curtains and a part of the cloakroom furniture represent a preserved original part of the interior. The characteristic colours of the universal Blue Room (Reception Hall) situated on the 2nd floor are blue and white. It has parquet wood flooring. The suspended ceiling currently consists of several components; the basic structure is built from blue-coloured slats, technical units are covered by solid ceiling boards, and white-coloured wooden grid ceiling on the sides. The wooden grid ceiling motif used in most of the rooms of the Cultural Centre merges the entire interior into a single whole. The walls are covered by horizontal blue-coloured slats of which the lowest used to serve to “mask” the scenic lighting elements. A part of the wall is also white vertical decorative metal panels. Formerly integrated in the foyer according to the design plan, the bar is now a space separated with a wood partition wall of diagonally installed wood profiles. There is a bar counter preserved to date, a classic wooden wall panelling, and original curtains, the same as in the Orange Room. The seating furniture has not been preserved, except for bar stools. For that time a typical wooden grid ceiling is painted red. The bar zone receives a final touch by the slat wood suspended ceiling. [4]

“The character of the interiors preserved to date is captured in the comments of the author himself made at the time of the origin of the work: “The leitmotif of the entire architectural opinion was meant to be an oscillation between modernistic means of expression leading to a more surprising and manifold play with shapes and space. We strived to tune the atmosphere of the interior spaces as a continuous grading of the visitor’s perceptions and impressions with a view to creating a special atmosphere in each space while preserving the continuous unity of the solution in its principles.” [3] The economic factor often impairs the quality of additional adjustments. Therefore, future renovations of similar buildings should seek compromising solutions respecting the cultural continuity, solutions incarnating original values of the work while preserving its quality.