The self-service grocery store was built between 1960 and 1962 as part of the civic amenities of the Hostinský housing estate. It is situated on the northern edge of the estate, behind a long residential slab block on Riazanská Street. The building ranks among the earliest examples of freestanding self-service stores designed for large-scale housing developments and represents an early experiment with a new retail typology that became a common feature of Czechoslovak housing estates in the following decades.
The single-storey building is conceived as a simple rectilinear pavilion with a flat roof. Its architectural design drew on principles that Ivan Matušík had previously employed in the Slimák shopping centre; however, instead of organic forms, he translated them into a strictly orthogonal composition. The building’s original focal point was a fully glazed main façade facing a small public square with a fountain, framed by an opposing residential block and a wall clad in cyclopean masonry. Just as the circular form was reflected in the paving design of the Slimák shopping centre, the clear orthogonal geometry of the grocery store was echoed in the design of the fountain, the concrete bench, and the square’s paving composed of large concrete slabs.
The building’s original massing and function have been preserved to the present day. However, the glazed entrance façade, together with the original design of the forecourt—including the fountain, bench, and cyclopean masonry wall—was removed during later alterations. As a result, the building lost much of its original architectural and urban composition, now only fragmentarily recalled by the footprint of the former fountain, which has since been converted into a planted area.
author of the description: Karolína Králiková
Bibliography:
Projekt 1964, 6(3), s. 60 – 61.
