Hotel Hutník in Košice was built in the early 1960s as an urgent solution to the insufficient accommodation capacity in eastern Slovakia. It originally served as a dormitory for the workers building the East Slovak Ironworks and was later used as a hotel. It was one of the first high-rise hotel buildings in the country, and its design and construction opened up opportunities for testing new construction technologies as well as new spatial and operational arrangements. The architect of Hotel Hutník was the Czech architect Zdeněk Edel, who later drew on his experience in Košice when designing the Parkhotel in Prague.
Hutník Hotel was built near the historic city centre, by the Mlynský náhon canal. At the time of its construction, it was connected to the opposite side of the city by a pedestrian footbridge opposite Garbiarska Street. The hotel consisted of two floors of communal and social facilities, interconnected by a spiral staircase, a mezzanine level with a café and terrace, and a total of ten floors of accommodation. In the original version of the design, the rooms in the accommodation section were conceived as “tourist cubicles”, designed, much like train berths, to accommodate as many guests as possible. Although the level of comfort was eventually increased slightly, the hotel was built with an unprecedented accommodation capacity of 171 double rooms, 19 single rooms and 20 suites.
The load-bearing structure consists of a box-type system of thin load-bearing walls cast in situ. The façade was stiffened with concrete parapets, while its regularity was deliberately disrupted by several coloured loggias. From the outset, the construction of the hotel suffered from several shortcomings, which were nevertheless to some extent understandable given its pioneering character. The hotel underwent a major reconstruction in 2008 and, following its reopening under the name Yasmin, lost much of its characteristic façade grid.
author of the description: Monika Bočková
Bibliography:
KRIVOŠOVÁ, Jana - LUKÁČOVÁ, Elena: Premeny súčasnej architektúry Slovenska. Bratislava: Alfa, 1990, s. 72-73.
MALINOVSKÝ, Viktor a kol.: Dvadsať rokov investičnej výstavby vo východoslovenskom kraji. Košice, Východoslovenské vydavateľstvo 1967. s. 228 – 229.
