kodachrome | brno
bata department store (centrum), brno, 1930 - 1931, architect: vladimir karfik;
The Tomáš Baťa shoemaking firm achieved such prosperity that he decided to build a network of large department stores throughout the entire Czechoslovakia. The company purchased the plot between Jánská and Kobližná streets, right in the center of the city, where Europe's first skyscraper was to have replaced the historic low buildings. After the unsuccessful architectural competition and other delays, Tomáš Baťa addressed architect Vladimír Karfík, who could profit from his experiences from the studio of American Frank Lloyd Wright, and design the final appearance of the building. The building consisted of the rectangular and horizontally segmented mass of the department store and the lean tower of the administrative facilities.
In 1944 the facade was damaged by a bomb blast near the department store during an Allied air raid. The present modified appearance of the facade is the result of the reconstruction of the building in 1966 involving the only available materials, so-called Boletice panels, which entirely disrupted the original horizontal segmentation of the facade.
kodachrome | brno
bata department store (centrum), brno, 1930 - 1931, architect: vladimir karfik;
The Tomáš Baťa shoemaking firm achieved such prosperity that he decided to build a network of large department stores throughout the entire Czechoslovakia. The company purchased the plot between Jánská and Kobližná streets, right in the center of the city, where Europe's first skyscraper was to have replaced the historic low buildings. After the unsuccessful architectural competition and other delays, Tomáš Baťa addressed architect Vladimír Karfík, who could profit from his experiences from the studio of American Frank Lloyd Wright, and design the final appearance of the building. The building consisted of the rectangular and horizontally segmented mass of the department store and the lean tower of the administrative facilities.
In 1944 the facade was damaged by a bomb blast near the department store during an Allied air raid. The present modified appearance of the facade is the result of the reconstruction of the building in 1966 involving the only available materials, so-called Boletice panels, which entirely disrupted the original horizontal segmentation of the facade.