The Honorary Consulate with Gallery

200106 / Bratislava / Schoolworks

The villa is located at Štefánik street No. 6 close to the corner with the Spojná street. Its property is shared with the Public Art School. The surrounding eclectic houses come from the eighties of the 19th century. With regard to the representative character of the district we decided to accommodate a Consulate and a cultural centre of the Netherlands into the house as in Bratislava no similar in-stitution can be found. A gallery and a theme tearoom with a terrace have been located here too. The gallery and the technical equipment of the building occupy the area of the first floor. The consulate itself has been located into the western section of the original building facing the street. The second floor is allotted to the public with a reception and a waiting room. A Consul's office and auxiliary rooms are located on the second floor with the pretentious faca-de. In the three neighbouring rooms the Consul, Consul's assistant and visitors saloon are located. This allowed us to use the original palace layout without major interference into the statics of the construction. The attic over the se-cond floor has been adjusted as a temporary accommoda-tion area for visitors of the consulate and/or the cultural centre. The flats are commodious with a common central area, a fireplace, a dining area and a kitchen. Two bed-rooms resembling hotel rooms have their own bathrooms. The cultural centre of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is in the eastern part of the original building as well as in the proposed annex. The annex ser-ves as a gallery with the reception and vertical communication. As it has been designed as a gallery there are no windows in the walls and the day-light comes only through the vertical opening and secondarily through the glass staircase. In the first floor of the annex there is a lift to the automatic carousel underground garage and garbage room. The external staircase leads to the second floor accommo-dating the reception and a part of the gallery. The third floor of the annex serves as a gallery with the closable exhibition section. A staircase on the top floor leads to the attic and to the annex terrace. The attic is a room for presentations. Therefore the annex is closely linked to the original building and it is variably used for many fun-ctions. The cultural centre has a chance to present the country, its art, as well as personalities from culture and society. In the academic year 2000/2001 the project has been awarded Professor Alfred Piffl Prize as the best students' project regarding protection and architectural design in the historical

name: The Honorary Consulate of Netherlands with Gallery
buidling type: reconstruction, annex, new building
function: office, gallery, dwelling, caffee
location: Štefániková, Bratislava
authors: Rudolf Lesňák, Peter Lovich
consultant: Ing. Arch. Beáta Brtková
project: 2000/2001
award: Prof. Alfred Piffl price for designing and reconstruction in historical environment