Zdeněk Michal, an architect from the DRUPRO design institute in Brno, designed some of the most progressive standalone cinema buildings in Czechoslovakia during the 1960s, in Uherské Hradiště and Prostějov. A decade later, Michal returned to this typology with the design of Kino Mier in Považská Bystrica. In this project, he developed the concept of a circular auditorium inserted into a rectangular foyer and service area. Unlike his earlier works, the composition of volumes in Kino Mier is clearly evident in the building's overall form.
The placement of the cinema is based on the urban concept for the centre of Považská Bystrica, which was prepared in 1976 by urban designers Tibor Alexy, Ján Kavan and Filip Trnka from the Faculty of Architecture at the Slovak University of Technology (SVŠT) in Bratislava. The cinema's form emphasises its central location and its role as a compositional focal point between the administrative and commercial zones of the city centre.
Michal worked with a composition of basic geometric forms — rectangular prisms and cylinders. The cylindrical volume of the auditorium projects prominently from the elongated block of the entrance foyer along the building’s central axis. The main entrance is accentuated by a simple, stone-faced projecting portal, while the remaining façade surfaces are clad in ochre-coloured ceramic tiles. The foyer was originally conceived as an open, flowing space surrounding the cylindrical core of the auditorium. The wall of the cylinder facing the foyer is decorated with a monumental stone mosaic.
The cinema's interior remains authentically preserved, featuring wooden and textile acoustic cladding, as well as an Alpo-type aluminium ceiling. Another artistic highlight is the stage curtain, which features a monumental abstract composition.
Bibliography:
PROCHÁZKA, Anton: Stavoindustria. Bratislava, Stavoindustria 1990. s. 20.
TUROŠÍK, Marek: Architektonické pamiatky a pamätihodnosti Považská Bystrica: centrum a podhradie. Vlastivedné múzeum v Považskej Bystrici 2023. s. 67.
