House of Culture and Trade Unions (Dům kultury a odborů)

The architectural tender for the design of the Jihlava House of Culture was held at the end of 1955. The winning design was submitted by Věra and Vladimír Machonin from the State Design Institute (Státní projektový ústav) in Prague. The politically promoted house of culture was supposed to replace most of the cultural and social facilities in the city, and thus ensure better control over them. The Jihlava House of Culture was one of the largest in the whole country. An entire block of urban buildings between Havlíčkova and Tolstého Streets had to make way for it. The final project was preceded by several revised drafts as the opinions on the design kept changing. The 1955 tender still corresponded to the ideas of socialist realism architecture. It envisaged a high entrance portico raised on columns and topped with a classical attic, as well as massive blockwork on the ground floor around the entire building. In the implemented project, the architects embedded a monumental portico with six high pillars into the building structure in the frontage line of the adjoining central wing and, all in all, their design abandoned historicist details in favour of the effect of austere pure forms. Especially in the interiors, the emerging influence of 1960s Brussels style was applied.

The multifunctional building consists of three rectangular sections, which give way to a space left for greenery in front of the façade. In the original project, the outdoor space behind the north wing was to be a park area with a playground. The house was to cater for a wide range of activities. The largest western section with the main entrance portico was the centre of social life. It includes two large halls, one above the other, which connect the staircase vestibules with the south light. The theatre and cinema hall on the ground floor could accommodate up to 525 people. The stage still has the original turntable to this day, and the balcony above the auditorium with an impressively wavy railing has also been preserved. The yellow seats in the auditorium and the recessed circular chandelier made of milk glass have not survived. The parquet floors have been preserved in the 800-seat stage hall on the first floor. There was a smaller ballet hall on the top floor of the eastern frontage. The architects designated a restaurant in the middle section with a kitchen and a library with a reading room, as well as a lecture hall, an art studio, an exhibition hall, a meeting room, photo labs, and various offices and clubrooms. In the separate basement section there was a children's department with a hall and a puppet theatre stage, a cafeteria, playrooms, and workshops. The eastern section housed administrative and technical facilities, clubhouses, and interest groups. In 1993, Věra Machoninová designed an additional superstructure for the building, whose sculptural shaping on the northern wing transcends the line of the crown cornice and creates the impression of a massive roof canopy.

The architects placed special emphasis on the complete interior furnishings. The architect Miloslav Mašek and a number of artists were involved in its design together with the Machonins. The painter Arnošt Paderlík designed a stained glass window illuminating the lobbies of the main halls from the south. František Jiroudek provided a large painting for the foyer of the stage hall. Jan Simota, František Burant, M. Nováková, Karel Lapka, Marie Zábranská, and Miroslav Fencl also collaborated on the decoration. The architects and artists designed the interior furnishings down to the last detail, and carefully selected the colour and material combinations. Grey, blue, and yellow predominated, and various types of marble and wood cladding covered the interior walls. The façade cladding is trachyte from Teplá. All the sub-elements of the original furnishings, such as the rounded shapes of the luminaires, staircases, railings, chairs, colour schemes, and other details, created an original sophisticated whole that safely revealed the arrival of the Brussels style.

At the time of its construction, the House of Culture in Jihlava was one of the largest and most splendid buildings of this type in the Czech Republic, and it also became the first important work implemented by the Machonins. With its façade design and the structural concept of the massive entrance without any ostentatious ornamentation, the building is classifies as classical monumentalism. However, the austerity of the exterior is harmoniously balanced by the undulating lines of the shapes, the colour and material combinations, and the overall cosy atmosphere of the interior space. The designers of the building no longer conformed to the rules of the previous era of socialist realism and, especially in the interiors, followed the international trends in 1960s architecture. Emphasis was placed on the proportion of high-quality art and craftsmanship, which amounted to three per cent of the total construction budget. In total, the construction cost CZK 25 million. The House of Culture and Trade Unions still serves its original purposes today. The layout has remained almost unchanged, though unfortunately, only a limited number of the interior furnishings have been preserved.

JL