Architecture 1958—89: House of Interior Culture 

Věra Machoninová  
House of Interior Culture in Prague, 1968—1981 

Budějovická 1667/64, 140 00 Praha 4

In the late 1960s, the role of the chief architect of Prague became crucial for the city’s development. In 1961, Jiří Voženílek, an architect with strong modernist foundations, assumed the position and initiated several architectural competitions. At the time, Prague was stagnating and the need for development was driven, among other things, by the unbearable traffic situation in the city centre and the neglected commercial infrastructure.   Plans for the construction of the metro resurfaced, and Voženílek tasked the Huť architectural team, led by Karel Prager, with designing most of the stations and their adjacent local shopping centres (as a “materialisation of socialism with a human face”). However, one particular project was directly assigned to Věra Machoninová in the spring of 1968. 

The project entailed not only the design of a metro station but also the addition of a specialised department store. The Nábytek (Furniture) enterprise encompassed the state-owned furniture industry, and its scattered stores were far from meeting the demands of eager customers from new housing estates. The planned building was to offer ample exhibition space with the necessary services, all in a modern spirit. Věra Machoninová enthusiastically designed the entire local centre in a grand urban form. She envisioned what would become Budějovické náměstí Square as a multi-level system of terraces, organised around two perpendicular axes. The main axis was formed by the metro line, with an open pedestrian passage lined with shops and vestibules placed on its sunken tube. The terraces merged into the individual buildings, and the principle of layering visually shaped most of them. At street level, the square’s composition culminated with an administrative building, a cantilevered panoramic cinema hall, and a tall hotel building. The House of Interior Culture (DBK), located at the end of the main axis, was shaped by the architect with sculptural expression in mind, fitting in within the future development. However, the design of the exterior was significantly influenced by the interior space. Maximum openness and connection between the levels (initially planned with direct ramps) led to the volume being split into two parts, offset by half a floor, with a generous 18-metre-high atrium inserted between them. The dark exterior shell made of pre-rusted Atmofix sheet metal visually hovered above a band of frameless glazing on the street level, with the upper volume extending several meters outward.  The meticulously designed interior, with its central hall, was emphasised by a bold colour scheme. The impressive red sculpture of the escalators linked to the heavily undulating ceiling, with red dominating the entire interior and extending into exterior details as well. 

The DBK, which she designed outside her usual tandem, holds a special significance in Věra Machoninová’s work. She always referred to it as her favourite building, where all the scales in which an architect can work – from urban planning to the demanding construction connected with the metro, down to the design of each chair – came together. Moreover, she benefited from working with a generous investor.