Zprávy památkové péče 2019, 79(4):521-536 | DOI: 10.56112/zpp.2019.4.10

Houses of Culture as an architectural and monumental theme using Ostrava as an example

Martin Strakoš

NPÚ, ÚOP v Ostravě

Ostrava is one of the cities where a network of factory clubs and Houses of Culture was established during the 1950s; their cultural mission coincided with the development of the area's heavy industry, the construction of new socialist cities, and with the ideology and propaganda of the regime. The introduction of the article deals with three factory clubs and continues by focusing particular attention to three large Houses of Culture. The first of them was designed by the Studio of National Artist Jiří Kroha for the Stalingrad-Bělský les housing estate in Ostrava-Zábřeh. The project originated in 1952, with the Klement Gottwald New House of Culture (now the Akord House of Culture, or DKA) being ceremonially opened in February 1959. The origins of the Ostrava House of Culture (now Poklad House of Culture, or DKP), which opened in 1961, are related to the Project of the 1st district of New Ostrava (Ostrava-Poruba). The competition proposal, created in the intentions of socialist realism, remained only on paper. A more modest project with a traditional layout, created by architects Jiří Petrusiak and Čeněk Vorel from the later 1950s, was realized. The third and most important House of Culture, originally named the Ostrava Workers House of Culture (now the Ostrava City House of Culture, or DKMO), was built between 1954 and 1961 on the outskirts of the Ostrava city center. The design of architect Jaroslav Fragner won from among the limited architectural competition. From these buildings, DKMO became a cultural heritage property in 2004 and DKP in 2009. In the case of DKP, a radical and insensitive reconstruction project has been under implementation since 2013, despite the resistance of the NHI. In 2018, a construction-historical survey was carried out at DKMO which became the basis of an international architectural competition for the design of the extension of the concert hall for the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava. Preparations are currently underway for the extension project.

Keywords: Houses of Culture, factory clubs, Ostrava, NHKG House of Culture / Akord House of Culture, OKD House of Culture / Poklad House of Culture, Ostrava Workers House of Culture / Ostrava City House of Culture, functionalism, socialist realism, new classicism, Brussels style, heritage care

Published: December 1, 2019  Show citation