The representative facility in Tatranská Javorina was designed to host extraordinary working meetings of the highest-ranking party and government officials of the socialist states. The building was intended to provide an appropriate level of comfort and technical standards for their meetings, including direct telephone connections with the highest authorities of the respective countries. A secondary function of the facility was leisure and recreation in the centre of the former hunting grounds of Count Christian Kraft von Hohenlohe.
The resulting building represents a highly self-confident architectural statement, particularly in the context of an already highly experimental mountain environment. The architects conceived the building as a pair of monumental arches interconnected by vertical circulation cores. In developing the layout, they focused on orienting all rooms towards the southwest, with views towards the ridge of the Belianske Tatras. The circle motif is repeatedly employed throughout the architecture of the building in various forms: the stair and lift cores are circular, while the terraces and room balconies, as well as elements of the landscaping and interior design, are semicircular. The arched roof form is also applied to the two detached apartments. The façade retains its original combination of brown aluminium louvers, dark glass and reddish-brown ceramic cladding. Structurally, the building was designed using Velox flat slab construction, without beams, allowing the layout to remain free of load-bearing columns.
The interior reflects a deliberate attempt to combine representativeness and grandeur with elements of folk tradition. This is particularly evident in the Slovak Room, with its semicircular seating arranged around a fireplace, as well as in the renowned Red Salon, featuring ornamental red cladding and crystal chandeliers. Other communal spaces include the Blue Salon and a soundproof cinema. The artistic treatment of the interior and exterior incorporates several works of art, including a carved relief surrounding the circular lift core, a stone figurative relief on the reception wall, and an outdoor sculpture.
For this work, architects Štefan Durkovič and Julián Hauskrecht received the Award of the Association of Slovak Architects in 1977. However, the building bears the particularly distinctive imprint of Štefan Svetko, whose co-authorship was deliberately concealed during the realization of the project for political reasons. Svetko, a leading figure of the former Associated Design Studios of the Association of Slovak Architects (ZSA), is therefore credited only in the initial studies.
Until 1993, the hotel served exclusively state officials. The building was kept secret, guarded by the military and inaccessible to the general public. Architect Lumír Lýsek later commented on this situation: “A system that required everyone to express an almost obligatory pride in the achievements, often mediocre, of the building process essentially concealed an indisputably outstanding work of Slovak architecture from the public and from the world.”
Full recognition of the building's qualities and its retrospective inclusion among the canonical works of post-war Slovak architecture was, however, preceded by its conversion into a commercial hotel in 2003. The hotel's capacity was increased by subdividing the originally spacious apartments, the reception area was enlarged by a glazed extension, and the interiors underwent several alterations.
author of the description: Monika Bočková
Bibliography:
HAUSKRECHT, Julián - LÝSEK, Lumír: Javorina, bývalé účelové zariadenie ÚV KSČ vo Vysokých Tatrách. Projekt 33, 1991, č. 3, s. 4 - 9.
