Publication details
Nová Cvernovka Cultural Center: Reactivating Architecture
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2026 |
| Type | Paper in proceedings |
| Conference | Proceedings of the 19th International Docomomo Conference: Multiple Moderns: Climate, Community, Creativity |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| web | DOCOMOMO Conference Proceedings |
| Keywords | Vladimír Karfík; Bratislava; Industral heritage; Industral architecture; function transition |
| Description | The article draws attention to the architectural qualities of a relatively inconspicuous postwar modernist building in Bratislava, which the Cvernovka Foundation has transformed since 2016 into the largest cultural and creative center in Slovakia: Nová Cvernovka. Although this confirms the importance of choosing the right function when adapting buildings, the paper concentrates on the building itself, designed by Czech architect Vladimír Karfík in 1947, as the headquarters of Dynamit-Nobel Works (later renamed to Juraj Dimitrov’s Chemical Works). Its key feature was offices whose width could be adjusted thanks to movable partitions, but the change of the function to a chemical vocational school, only few years after the construction, meant replacing the movable partitions with fixed ones and thus disrupting the original architectural concept. Karfík’s appeal for technical progress in architecture was challenged by the limited possibilities of postwar construction in socialist Czechoslovakia, as this affected the quality of his buildings even more because his architectural approach did not prioritize artistic aesthetics, but functionality. However, the usual interest in the unique rather than ordinary in architecture, leads often to the attempts to identify formal elements that Karfík may have adopted from—Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright or Adolf Loos—with whom he was in personal contact as a young architect. Their influence helped him form his own architectural worldview, more than anything else. The paper focuses on Karfík’s architectural thinking by presenting Nová Cvernovka as a case study. By means of architectural interpretation and a sociological method of focus group, the research identified that the users could resonate with Karfík’s original concept regardless of other physical or aesthetic properties of the building—an insight that can be further applied to promote architectural values among the public. |