The school designed by the architect Rudolf Miňovský in the Tulipán district of Trnava, was opened in the 1960–1961 school year. The school premises are designed for 24 regular classrooms and additional specialized classrooms. It is a pavilion-type school, which was one of the innovative standardized projects created at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s. The pavilion design was a response to the construction of monoblock schools, which were considered an outdated model unsuitable for modern teaching methods by the end of the 1950s. The pavilion concept of the school allowed for differentiated operation of the entire complex, and the modular construction system allowed the pavilions to be expanded according to the capacity requirements of individual schools. In addition, the pavilion layout ensured a better connection between children and nature, which was achieved by placing the pavilions connected by covered exterior corridors in a green environment.
The school complex in Trnava consists of five pavilions, a garden, and a sportsground. The pavilions of the Trnava school were the first in Czechoslovakia to be constructed with ceiling slabs built using the lift slab method. The perimeter walls were constructed according to the Ing. Fraňu system with pillars at an axial distance of 1.5 m, into which 10 cm thick and 50 cm high sawdust concrete slabs were inserted. The entrance pavilion, built onto a four-winged building with an atrium, houses the entrance foyer, while the upper floor contains administrative offices and a library. The school also has a kitchen and dining room. The pavilions house primary and secondary classrooms, specialized classrooms (biology, art, music, chemistry, physics, ethics, foreign languages, computer classrooms, language laboratory, environmental classroom). There are two gyms with changing rooms and sanitary facilities in a separate pavilion. In the western part of the complex, there is a recently renovated sports ground.
Although the school has undergone several stages of renovation since the 1990s – the pavilions are now insulated and the original windows have been replaced – the pavilion concept of the complex with its surrounding landscaping and the layout of the buildings are still clearly visible. The genius loci is complemented by preserved original elements – furniture, tiles, doors, railings, etc. The school has thus retained much of the authenticity of the original architectural concept, which was a progressive project at the time the school was founded.
Bibliography:
FRANCŮ, Světla. Medzinárodný seminár o školskej výstavbe. Projekt, 1959, roč. 1, č. 11–12, s. 145–151.
KARFÍK, Vladimír – KARFÍKOVÁ, Světla – MARCINKA, Marián. Nové smery vo výstavbe škôl. Bratislava: Vydavateľstvo Slovenského zväzu výtvarných umení, 1963, s. 214–216.
KUSÝ, Martin: Architektúra na Slovensku 1945 – 1975. Bratislava, Pallas 1976. s. 169.
Projekt 1964, 6(3), s. 60 – 61.
