The House of Culture in Zrkadlovy Háj was built as a cultural and educational facility with a capacity of 1,281 seats for the inhabitants of Bratislava's Petržalka, the largest Slovak mass housing estate. The monotonous environment of the unified prefabricated development was an ideal place to test the principles of postmodernism. The inclination towards eclectic formal postmodernism of the Stirling type is reflected in the colour solution of the façade, where the horizontal bands in the parterre refer to the historical bossage, but especially in the design of the main entrance as a stylized portico with a lightweight structure made of steel tubes supported by massive cylindrical columns. The portico in front of the façade of the building was intended to define the entrance forecourt of the community centre and thus evoke a traditional urban space. However, it became just another eccentric solitaire in the loose structure of the estate.
The focus of the layout solution is a two-level multifunctional hall with a minimum number of limiting elements. The functional units located on the first floor (two large club rooms, a library with free selection and club rooms for rings) have been designed to form its gallery. The ground-floor bar was part of a multi-purpose hall. In terms of theatrical practice, such space enforces experimentation. In addition to the multifunctional hall, the House of Culture also has a cinema-theatre hall with stepped seating.
The interior features are dominated by the ceiling, which runs in a cassette form through the entire building. The size of the module makes the ceiling responsive to the change of space, at the same time it is a carrier of lighting and acoustic treatment. The interior elements of bright red colour contrastingly complement the unplastered face masonry of the cinema-theatre hall in particular.
author of the description: Monika Bočková
Bibliography:
JANČO, Peter – MRÁZEK, Pavol: Kultúrno-osvetové zariadenie pre bratislavskú Petržalku, Projekt 1982, roč. 24, č. 7, s. 34–36.
MARKO, Ivan: Svitanie v Zrkadlovom háji, Projekt 1982, roč. 24, č. 7, s. 36–37.
MORAVČÍKOVÁ, Henrieta - SZALAY, Peter. Domy kultúry na Slovensku: Vzostup a pád jedného typologického druhu. In Osvěta, kultura, zábava: kultúrní domy v Československu,Michaela Janečková, Irena Lehkoživoá (eds.) 2024, VI PER: Praha, s. 681-767.
