Čeština
The capital city of Bratislava represents the densest and most varied concentration of modern architecture in Slovakia — from the interwar avant-garde and functionalism (the Unitas and Nová doba apartment buildings by F. Weinwurm and I. Vécsei, the Municipal Savings Bank by J. Tvarožek), through late-modern and technologically daring works (the pyramid of the Slovak Radio building, the SNP Bridge, F. Milučký’s Crematorium), to the contemporary city-forming projects of the digital era that redefine the city’s relationship with the Danube and its historic core. It was precisely on the south-western edge of the Old Town, on the site of the former Gumonka industrial zone and the Apolka refinery, that a new Bratislava downtown grew up with its cluster of high-rise landmarks (Sky Park Residence by Zaha Hadid Architects, River Park). In parallel, a return to perimeter block development with an emphasis on community functions and the sensitive completion of the historic area below the castle can be observed — themes represented in our publication by the River Park mixed-use complex and the new Vydrica.
Vydrica, Phase I
Bratislava
Authors: Compass Architekti and šujan_stassel Completed: 2022 – 2024 Photo: [to be added]
For architects, the area below Bratislava Castle has long been a key yet unresolved point on the map of the city centre. Several competition projects from the past remained unrealised, but the discussion on how to revive this historic, vanished quarter of the same name continued. Much of this professional debate was reflected in the urban study of the Podhradie (Castle Below) zone by Compass Architekti, on which the present project is based. Together with the second phase, now under construction, the area below the castle will at last be continuously connected with the historic core, fulfilling the concept of extending the Bratislava promenade (korzo) along with the restoration of several surviving relics. Two ice pits and a replica of Kempelen’s water conduit have already been preserved and reconstructed; the water tower still awaits restoration. An essential aspect of the new concept for Vydrica was to bring a smaller, more fine-grained scale of new buildings to the site, derived from history. It is not a copy, however: it reinterprets the original density of development, in part the height of the buildings, but also the width of the streets and the urban division into three parallel streets. In this way it seeks to approach the character of the street profiles and the small squares of old Bratislava. The public spaces, pavements and pedestrian routes are conceived with great attention to the resolution of details, materials and lighting, which ultimately has a very favourable effect. The ground floors of the residential buildings are gradually filling with services and life. The rich architectural repertoire of the façades of the four residential blocks is broken down into smaller sections, roughly 20 metres wide, that interpret the width of the buildings in the historic city centre. With the use of fine materials — render, stone cladding and brick — and together with the modelling of pitched roofs, they give the expression a deliberately more rustic and historicising tone. Contrasting with their architecture is a solitary office building projecting toward the street in the grey “shirt” of its louvred façade. In the evening hours, pleasantly illuminated, it forms a striking landmark of the new Vydrica.
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River Park Mixed-Use Complex
Bratislava, Nábrežie armádneho generála Ludvíka Svobodu
Authors: EEA / Erick van Egeraat Collaboration / local architects: [to be added — not stated in the source] Completed: 2005 – 2007 Photo: [to be added]
Following the results of the 2003 competition design, the architect Egeraat placed along the Danube two rows of linear mixed-use residential buildings, 10 and 13 storeys high, one behind the other, creating two parallel pedestrian routes — an attractive riverside promenade and a quieter route through the courtyards. He disrupted the linear urban concept by inserting an obliquely set solitary building, which reaches out over the surface of the Danube on a bold cantilever. Around it the structure opens into a pleasant public space into which both parallel pedestrian routes flow. The solitary building, with its horizontally articulated façade, is the dominant and, in distant views, the signal element of River Park. With its rounded corner it deliberately “steps out of line.” The office building at ground level offers a generous passage beneath the cantilever, whose height follows that of the ground-floor level, as well as lateral views toward the greenery of Bôrik. Its counterpart, in a more enclosed and compact form and colour scheme, is the Grand Hotel River Park, which enriches the amenities of the promenade with outdoor terraces. This urbanistically acceptable concept has an appropriate scale that does not disturb the city’s existing silhouette or the dominant feature of the castle hill. It employs a rich repertoire of architectural elements, reflecting the varied range of city-forming functions with a high proportion of housing. The wide promenade with abundant greenery and an active ground floor is used by pedestrians and cyclists alike, and even though their routes sometimes cross, River Park is among the healthy, well-functioning focal points of city life, with a favourable dialogue between the city and the river.
Between 2014 and 2018, the construction of the Zuckermandel complex (Bouda Masár Architekti, A.M. Architects) followed on from River Park in scale, toward the centre and beneath the castle hill. It is separated from the Danube by a traffic road, yet even in this section the natural character of the riverside promenade is preserved, to which Zuckermandel connects across the traffic corridor by means of a pedestrian bridge.
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