The need to build a new hospital in Bratislava had been discussed since the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The first plan to build it fell through due to World War I; later, in 1934, a public architectural competition was announced for the Lafranconi area, on the site of today’s Faculty of Natural Sciences campus. After World War II, however, due to concerns about the location’s proximity to the national border, it was ultimately decided to locate the hospital in Kramáre. This “clinical city” area was designated in 1949 for the concentrated development of healthcare facilities.
Based on the results of an architectural competition, a design team was subsequently formed at Stavoprojekt under the leadership of architect Gustav Paul, and leading Slovak architects Eugen Kramár and Štefan Lukačovič also worked on the project. However, even in the 1950s, construction could not begin, and two new studies were prepared based on new requirements emphasizing a scaled-back site program and phased construction. The winning design team, led by Štefan Imrich, adapted the architectural concept to the three phases of the planned construction. The first phase included a single building with a capacity of 650 beds, a polyclinic, support facilities, and utility networks. The second phase consisted of the children’s and infectious diseases hospitals, and the third phase comprised fully equipped theoretical institutes. Within a robust and artistically simple architectural concept, the architects succeeded in incorporating the criteria of modern medical care with regard to strict functional differentiation, providing a suitable urban design solution that addressed the challenging transportation connections and the sloping terrain, as well as the economic aspects of the construction.
The hospital’s dominant feature is a tall, three-winged monoblock with a Y-shaped floor plan, which is compositionally complemented by the horizontally arranged atrium structure of the outpatient clinic, featuring an open, walk-through ground floor. The hospital rooms face south, while the operating rooms face north. The outpatient clinic takes the form of a low-rise structure. On the south side, a seven-story pediatric ward building is connected to it via a connecting corridor. The administrative building is separate from the main complex and also houses the central reception area located at the entrance to the hospital grounds. Structurally, the high-rise monoblock consists of a reinforced concrete skeleton with flat slab ceilings based on a 3.30 x 6.00 m module; the outpatient clinic and other buildings have a 6.60 x 6.00 m module. At the time of its completion, hospital in Kramáre district was the most modern hospital in Slovakia thanks to its architectural and spatial design. Its current poor technical condition is due to a lack of building maintenance as well as the fact that the design was carried out in separate phases.
author of the description: Laura Krišteková
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