The Stred housing estate consists of a complex of six apartment buildings with 280 flats located between the edge of the historic centre of Piešťany and the City Park. The housing estate forms an open, green inner block, a continuation of the park, but also a lively urban space that closes the central pedestrian zone of Winterova Street. The characteristic modernist composition of nine-story high-rise buildings and four-story horizontal sectional buildings is connected on the Winterova Street side by a slender steel-concrete colonnade. This also functions as an airy awning for the commercial premises located on the ground floor of the buildings.
From a structural point of view, the apartment buildings are composed of a combination of reinforced concrete skeletons and load-bearing brick masonry. Their architecture is characterised by the contrast between solid volumes and rhythmically arranged concrete balconies and deep loggia strips. The tower blocks have significantly protruding, sloping concrete awnings above the roof terraces – a typical feature of the period, also found in other contemporary works, such as the Februárka housing estate in Bratislava or the Florát housing estate, later built in Piešťany.
The Stred housing estate is one of the first modern post-war housing estates in Slovakia. At the same time, it is characterised by a more concentrated composition that follows the original street layout and maintains the city block's character. It is thus an exceptional contextual addition to the urban fabric of Piešťany. It is also one of the first independent works by Milan Šavlík, who ranks among the most important architects of the second half of the 20th century in Slovakia. The complex also represents an early example of the post-war synthesis of modern architecture and art, in the form of sculptural objects placed freely in front of the colonnade (sculptors Valér Vavro and Ladislav Polák).
Bibliography:
KUSÝ, Martin. Architektúra na Slovensku 1945 – 1975. Bratislava: Pallas, 1976, 135 s.
MRŇA, Ľubomír. Stavebné pamiatky Piešťan. Piešťany: Balneologické múzeum, 2006, s. 66.
