Chrámy peněz
Česká architektura bankovních domů a spořitelen v 90. letech 20. stol.
Dokument Chrámy peněz prezentuje architekturu bankovních domů a spořitelen v 90. letech jako fenomén spojený se společensko-politickou změnou po roce 1989. Bankovní domy a spořitelny představovaly nejčetněji stavěnou typologii, která si vytvořila svůj reprezentativní model, odpovídající tehdejším ideálům nově se formující ekonomické sféry v postkomunistické zemi. Na jejich architektonické formě se podepsala doznívající vlna postmoderny. Kolem architektury bankovních institucí se již v době jejich realizace rozpoutala kritická diskuze s důrazem na morální otázky spojené s finanční nákladností a okázalou formou těchto staveb. Osočování z tvarové hýřivosti a nabubřelých gest se vztahovalo k samotnému užití postmoderního jazyka. Ten představoval zvláště pro nastupující mladou generaci architektů pouze vyčerpanou módní vlnu nikoliv s uměleckými, ale pouze s komerčními záměry.
Dokument se snaží zpětně přiblížit a znovuzhodnotit jednotlivé autorské koncepty, a to na základě citlivé dokumentace a osobních rozhovorů s architekty bank – Michalem Gabrielem, Vladimírem Štulcem a Jaromírem Kročákem. Přináší tak zpětnou reflexi složitého, avšak klíčového a všeobecně upozaďovaného období architektury převážně raných 90. let. I po uplynutí téměř čtvrtstoletí, představuje tato doba pro mnohé autory bank přetrvávající tabu.
Jana Pavlová
- The 1990s represent a period when our society was radically00:00:07.768
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- changing from socialist regime into a democratic capitalism.00:00:11.420
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- The period was often full of almost naive dreams00:00:15.842
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- about free country and fulfilled wishes.00:00:18.152
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- Banks and saving banks became desire mediators00:00:21.142
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- and offering ways to fulfilling the dreams,00:00:23.842
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- they became modern palaces00:00:26.989
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- which factually took power in the country.00:00:28.695
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- Money temples00:00:31.410
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- While building socialism provided many Czech towns00:00:37.943
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- with buildings of party secretariats,00:00:41.557
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- whose largely pompous character of forts00:00:43.955
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- demonstrated the society power organization,00:00:46.590
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- building capitalism in the Czech Republic is accompanied00:00:49.502
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- by almost explosive increase of banks,00:00:52.224
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- savings banks and insurance companies.00:00:54.858
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- The post-revolution period of the 1990s is apparent00:01:02.203
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- in every village, small town, square,00:01:05.466
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- city centre boulevard, housing estate or suburbs.00:01:08.130
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- Besides building hotels, administrative buildings00:01:14.720
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- and other business centres, the banks typologically represented00:01:17.423
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- the biggest group of freshly emerging buildings.00:01:21.465
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- Banks and saving banks became the first commissions00:01:24.369
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- for starting private studios and also the first evidence of their free production.00:01:27.060
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- The banks investors provided architects with00:01:32.412
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- benevolent and unlimited finances to realize their projects.00:01:36.103
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- I guess I haven't met such a good investor00:01:41.954
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- as the National Bank since then,00:01:44.492
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- we remember the times with gratitude because00:01:47.310
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- we really had an absolutely free hand.00:01:53.703
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- There weren't any hard and fast rules at that time,00:01:59.071
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- so it was possible to comply with a certain above-standard00:02:03.698
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- such as stone facing or financially demanding technical comforts.00:02:07.802
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- There was a radical change in technological opportunities00:02:15.323
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- and the willingness to carry out what00:02:19.536
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- had been projected instead of projecting00:02:21.992
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- what the provider was able or willing to build.00:02:25.680
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- The free production euphoria played into the hands of architects00:02:32.422
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- who weren't afraid to experiment and champion their individual style,00:02:35.828
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- an architectonic gesture that would noticeably00:02:39.478
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- reflect on the city appearance,00:02:41.655
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- even in the context of so much protected historic environment,00:02:43.303
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- the demand for new bank institutions brought about00:02:47.799
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- specific architectonic forms creating a single universal style.00:02:50.687
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- Easy to distinguish but rather hard to define.00:02:55.289
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- The style bloated in shapes and colours,00:02:58.786
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- reflecting the subsiding post-modernist style.00:03:01.550
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- The aspect of a strong modernistic tradition00:03:05.265
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- together with the previous regime heritage,00:03:07.627
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- especially the remaining technical imperfections,00:03:09.846
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- mix with post-modern features in a peculiar connection.00:03:12.391
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- A settled architectonic style influenced by post-modernism00:03:27.331
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- as a depleted fashion wave started to predominate in most commissions.00:03:30.239
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- Bank and savings bank houses became symbolic representatives00:03:36.145
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- of architectonic and ethical failures,00:03:39.372
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- often called a poor or trashy post-modernism.00:03:42.570
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- Numerous theorists when describing such architecture00:03:49.901
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- speak about blank gestures,00:03:53.057
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- coulisse-like and histrionic facades,00:03:57.854
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- a tasteless eclecticism of style,00:04:02.763
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- parasites on modernism,00:04:07.181
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- unsuccessful copies of foreign examples.00:04:11.245
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- Banks and savings banks were driving force at that time,00:04:17.332
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- which resulted in a negative response00:04:20.799
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- and experience among ordinary population00:04:24.611
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- and this was logically passed on the architectonic production.00:04:31.084
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- As there was a certain latitude and liveliness among architects,00:04:35.449
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- not only quality but also monstrous buildings emerged.00:04:40.830
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- All the bloated ideas, new shapes,00:04:47.785
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- statues and sculptures were included,00:04:51.365
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- but in a different way from the baroque or renaissance.00:04:54.907
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- The buildings often lacked in the right criterion or00:04:58.750
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- the right amount of restraint.00:05:03.393
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- Here the author ironically uses historicized forms00:05:12.025
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- in contrast to a modern glass construction.00:05:15.280
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- The irony is demonstrated by an intentional confusion00:05:18.304
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- caused by an unusual end point on the central axis00:05:20.725
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- but also a deformation of the facade made by a waved crack00:05:24.248
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- supported with plain monolithic piles and00:05:27.911
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- lion sculptures made by the sculptor Miroslav Páral.00:05:30.430
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- The facade looks like a fictive ruin,00:05:33.715
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- a torso of the past separated by a modern glass material00:05:36.185
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- from a socialist building from Boletic panels.00:05:38.975
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- The architect Michal Gabriel decided for a different concept00:05:43.619
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- of work with historicized form when projecting00:05:46.502
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- the Czech National Bank in Ústí nad Labem.00:05:48.766
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- We wanted to create a presentable space00:05:52.966
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- and the relation with a baroque church face00:06:00.262
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- appeared to us as an interesting form of dialogue00:06:06.073
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- between the church face and the bank main frontage.00:06:11.141
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- We wanted to establish more presentable and spiritual space.00:06:16.540
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- When you look at the frontages,00:06:24.272
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- a certain segmentation is probably apparent.00:06:28.265
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- Especially the segmentation of a giant order in individual squares00:06:34.741
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- repeating both at the baroque and the modern or post-modern building.00:06:38.406
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- The billowy building appeared interesting to us as it shows00:06:53.567
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- a certain dynamics, which I consider a certain feature00:06:59.710
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- of modern times or present days.00:07:04.572
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- Investment costs:00:07:08.053
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- I admit I wasn't really willing to accept when someone told me00:07:13.021
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- the building was too close to the church00:07:19.872
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- or that the glass blocks in the tower didn't go together00:07:24.348
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- with the baroque church located right next to it.00:07:29.180
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- That the round windows above the giant order00:07:34.052
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- are inappropriate and reminded of a swimming pool.00:07:36.405
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- I don't consider this a professional discourse.00:07:39.488
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- These features pushed the building to post-modernism,00:07:41.625
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- whether it's the cupola that should identify00:07:46.069
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- a certain point of rotation when the facade winds into00:07:48.655
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- a cylinder and keeps on in a different rhythm where00:07:52.846
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- shape creations in individual fragments change...00:07:56.119
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- So we had no limitations in this respect which is pretty rare situation.00:08:04.051
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- The bank even accepted a two-storey hall00:08:11.937
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- with a glass wall which meant a certain hazard.00:08:15.691
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- Inside there is a fantastic collection of contemporary art00:08:24.380
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- of both young and renowned modern artists.00:08:28.130
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- With the investor's assistant we visited the Academy of Fine Arts00:08:34.992
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- and selected some students' work the bank bought in the end.00:08:45.491
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- The collection is a part of the interior today.00:08:51.351
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- A very bold conception of a gilded pendulum made by Vratislav Novák00:08:56.627
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- is a very unusual feature on the facade.00:09:05.884
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- The bank provided us with an absolutely free hand at that time.00:09:10.992
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- Inside there is a very interesting counter which looks like an iceberg,00:09:14.660
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- it was made by Ivo Rozsypal, a glassworker from Nový Bor.00:09:18.546
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- We wouldn't even dream of such possibilities today.00:09:22.209
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- The Commercial Bank building00:09:33.856
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- In Ostrava by Evžen and Roman Kuba00:09:35.133
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- demonstrates another original approach to work with a post-modern language,00:09:37.579
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- which brings about completely unique and unintentional qualities.00:09:41.246
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- The authors worked with a dynamic material penetration00:09:45.428
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- of a modern minimalist morphology.00:09:48.503
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- An organic shaping of glass and white parts of the facade00:09:51.366
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- with typical features referring to modernism00:09:54.668
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- shows a strong and persisting influence00:09:57.328
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- of the post-modern architect Richard Meier.00:10:00.754
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- Similar architectonic composition evokes Meier's work so much00:10:04.047
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- that we can call it a diminished copy of his work.00:10:07.088
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- Česká spořitelna in Příbram shows00:10:17.685
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- a post-modern influence mixing with the post-revolution tendency00:10:20.177
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- to return back to the values of the Czech functionalism.00:10:24.087
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- Simple geometric forms shaped on the basis00:10:26.948
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- of placing the object into an existing housing development.00:10:29.885
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- Česká spořitelna in Příbram was our first bigger commission00:10:36.844
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- we acquired on the ground of an architectonic contest.00:10:42.966
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- It was a new experience for us,00:10:48.783
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- before that we had worked on a savings bank in Vlašim,00:10:51.868
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- but it was a smaller building.00:10:55.030
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- It was very lucrative and I have to admit it saved us,00:10:57.317
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- because there weren't so many commissions at that time.00:11:03.571
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- The savings bank project in Příbram00:11:08.425
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- was a kind of boost and a real start of our business.00:11:10.065
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- The locality was given at the beginning00:11:17.785
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- when the contest was announced.00:11:21.270
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- The locality is very specific and it inspired us00:11:24.102
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- with respect to the ground plan and material.00:11:27.129
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- The building is compact, but the shape is irregular.00:11:31.483
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- We tried to fill up an area which was empty00:11:36.653
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- as a result of pulling down old houses00:11:42.277
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- that used to be there and at the same time00:11:44.889
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- we wanted the building to fit in the street line and the square.00:11:47.539
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- From one side there are huge civil houses,00:11:56.322
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- a county court and a local authority from the 1970s,00:11:59.652
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- these are huge monolithic buildings of the prefabbed era.00:12:04.222
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- From the other side there is a small built-up area,00:12:11.594
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- which is quite diverse, there are houses with yards,00:12:15.248
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- picturesque facades and so on.00:12:19.611
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- Even though it is a solitary building,00:12:21.490
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- the horizontal structure of noticeable lines00:12:25.886
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- moderately reminds of00:12:29.486
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- horizontal structure of historical facades.00:12:33.191
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- On the other hand the building's mass fills one side of the square.00:12:38.047
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- I didn't work with post modernism on purpose,00:12:47.079
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- but everyone subconsciously follows certain examples and inspirations,00:12:50.267
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- be it Louis Kahn or other post-modernist architects.00:12:56.758
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- Everyone started to travel after the revolution00:13:02.113
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- and absorb both post modernism and functionalism00:13:05.864
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- some of us have embedded for a long time00:13:11.633
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- regarding the Czech inter-war architecture.00:13:14.117
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- All this was a compilation of particular influences and inspirations.00:13:18.632
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- The building is designed as three wings connected into a triangular interior hall.00:13:25.637
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- The wings are structural triple-modules,00:13:34.993
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- the hall is glassed-in from above00:13:44.552
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- and it creates an exceeded multi-storey atrium,00:13:47.894
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- on the ground floor there are counters,00:13:52.057
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- on the first floor are separate departments,00:13:56.387
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- around there are offices with their own partitions or doors,00:13:59.106
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- providing a quiet place for data processing.00:14:07.071
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- I discovered that the interior and00:14:38.359
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- office layout had not changed much,00:14:40.427
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- only the house contents arrangement.00:14:47.270
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- Even the chairs and the furniture remained the same00:14:52.934
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- we'd originally projected seventeen years ago.00:14:57.069
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- It's surprising that twenty years later00:15:06.218
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- it still works quite well and there was no need00:15:09.284
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- for any radical reconstruction.00:15:12.815
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- There is something adversely common00:15:15.705
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- about many of these realizations.00:15:17.428
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- We may call such feature discreetly00:15:19.108
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- as a lavish immoderateness.00:15:21.010
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- Luxurious or pretending to be luxurious materials00:15:23.682
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- are practically inevitable precondition.00:15:26.639
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- The more shiny marble the better.00:15:28.730
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- Immoderateness is often being demonstrated by00:15:32.179
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- a bloated decoration which should brighten the building up00:15:34.079
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- and imprint the interior with a joyfully optimistic appearance.00:15:36.699
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- Sometimes both tendencies happen to occur together00:15:42.338
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- as if the building presented two characters or worlds.00:15:44.860
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- A respectable dignity and a joyful world of commercials.00:15:49.799
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- The architect Vladimír Štulc together with00:15:55.706
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- his colleague Jan Vrana projected00:15:57.783
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- three buildings for Česká spořitelna.00:15:59.583
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- Although each building is00:16:02.923
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- situated in a different context,00:16:04.496
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- the conception idea of a bank00:16:06.456
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- as a uniform art work is evident.00:16:07.882
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- We wanted the building to correspond with00:16:13.252
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- the context of its surroundings,00:16:17.627
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- which means an adequate mass,00:16:21.694
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- structure and a scale but at the same time00:16:24.941
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- also a simple modern shaping.00:16:28.202
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- We didn't want to copy or refer to the history00:16:30.943
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- of the central square or the neighboring ecliptic houses.00:16:37.692
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- The building is based on a square ground plan,00:16:45.722
- 00:16:45.722
- due to its bit out corners it looks like a four leaf clover,00:16:49.102
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- in the square of the main ground plan00:16:55.429
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- there is a square hall placed diagonally.00:16:58.213
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- It's roofed with a simple pyramid.00:17:02.720
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- A primitive fundamental geometry.00:17:05.247
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- There wasn't any problem to complete the building00:18:02.987
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- with visual art at that time,00:18:10.485
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- but it has currently lapsed into an oblivion.00:18:12.806
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- Most investors have the money counted precisely00:18:16.890
- 00:18:16.890
- just to build the house but they are not really00:18:20.324
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- interested in details such as sculptures or paintings.00:18:23.484
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- The four seasons theme in the main hall00:18:38.287
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- and a man being associated with them00:18:41.807
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- was made by the professor Jiří Sopko.00:18:46.133
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- We wanted it vividly colourful and00:18:49.930
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- there was no need to convince professor Sopko about it00:18:54.007
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- as he makes only colourful and beautiful paintings.00:18:57.443
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- The entire bank hall is a huge art work.00:19:01.563
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- The paintings in the meeting rooms00:19:07.071
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- and the director's office were made by Aleš Lamr.00:19:11.082
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- We designed just atypical features such as00:19:16.073
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- a fountain in the main hall00:19:18.178
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- or an illuminating column which works00:19:20.764
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- as an entrance point of orientation.00:19:24.698
- 00:19:24.698
- In Pelhřimov we reconstructed00:19:47.705
- 00:19:47.705
- a building on a square,00:19:50.727
- 00:19:50.727
- It used to be a hotel and then a multi-purpose community hall,00:19:53.383
- 00:19:53.383
- where balls and theatre performances were held.00:19:59.122
- 00:19:59.122
- Our idea followed the manner00:20:12.516
- 00:20:12.516
- of savings banks from the 1930s00:20:17.302
- 00:20:17.302
- when they wanted to show they are savings banks,00:20:20.475
- 00:20:20.475
- they weren't top-class but functional buildings00:20:26.768
- 00:20:26.768
- and high-grade material was used.00:20:32.818
- 00:20:32.818
- We kept to the tendency by00:20:37.068
- 00:20:37.068
- using a combination of different colour stones.00:20:40.938
- 00:20:40.938
- The roof or transparent ceiling00:20:51.167
- 00:20:51.167
- should help an even illumination of the hall.00:20:56.047
- 00:20:56.047
- We also felt the hall,00:21:07.747
- 00:21:07.747
- which had a lower level of ceiling on both sides,00:21:11.350
- 00:21:11.350
- reminding of a basilica in a cross-section,00:21:17.760
- 00:21:17.760
- shouldn't have a flat and plain ceiling.00:21:24.376
- 00:21:24.376
- So the construction created a symbol of00:21:30.645
- 00:21:30.645
- a vault and as an antipole we used00:21:36.663
- 00:21:36.663
- a swagged tubular steel constituent which is00:21:41.388
- 00:21:41.388
- in the back part above the cash windows.00:21:45.731
- 00:21:45.731
- There are graphic transparent components inspired by00:21:52.072
- 00:21:52.072
- bank notes ornaments suspended in the steel construction.00:21:57.278
- 00:21:57.278
- They felt it was quite an important place00:22:12.745
- 00:22:12.745
- and because the housing estate was rather dull00:22:18.245
- 00:22:18.245
- and uninteresting, they wanted00:22:21.053
- 00:22:21.053
- the savings bank look noticeable or dominant in their words.00:22:23.391
- 00:22:23.391
- As it was a small building,00:22:32.151
- 00:22:32.151
- we tried to solve the dominant role00:22:35.026
- 00:22:35.026
- by shaping and lively colours.00:22:37.880
- 00:22:37.880
- The colours comes out from the ones00:22:41.959
- 00:22:41.959
- the savings bank uses - red and blue.00:22:44.193
- 00:22:44.193
- Functionalism proclaimed building was a statue,00:22:50.139
- 00:22:50.139
- so we wanted the building to look like a statue a bit.00:22:53.564
- 00:22:53.564
- The same goes for the one in Jindřichův Hradec.00:22:56.283
- 00:22:56.283
- It's projected as a composition of00:22:59.016
- 00:22:59.016
- an exterior building with a front glass wall.00:23:01.883
- 00:23:01.883
- Through the wall you can see an ordinary00:23:06.589
- 00:23:06.589
- prism of the operation itself,00:23:09.962
- 00:23:09.962
- in front of which there is the bank hall and00:23:13.496
- 00:23:13.496
- the prism has the structure of the exterior facade inside as well.00:23:18.741
- 00:23:18.741
- Similarly as in the two preceding projects,00:23:44.993
- 00:23:44.993
- we used stone for atypical features00:23:48.665
- 00:23:48.665
- of the interior house contents00:23:52.868
- 00:23:52.868
- such as tables, stools and the supporting element00:23:57.747
- 00:23:57.747
- or plinth for the counter or the entire shaping of the counter00:24:06.646
- 00:24:06.646
- and other atypical features such as00:24:13.237
- 00:24:13.237
- a plant pot or rather a round sculpture00:24:16.959
- 00:24:16.959
- in the tip of the bank hall.00:24:22.521
- 00:24:22.521
- Behind the counters there was a relatively big column00:24:28.983
- 00:24:28.983
- which was the point de vue of the entire hall00:24:35.806
- 00:24:35.806
- and there we projected a painting made by the professor Jiří Sopko.00:24:40.267
- 00:24:40.267
- As for the visual art aspect, we wanted the technicist hall00:24:53.520
- 00:24:53.520
- to demonstrate nature we were inclined to then.00:24:58.446
- 00:24:58.446
- In this case there's a motive00:25:04.776
- 00:25:04.776
- of water surface, lets say a South Bohemian lake.00:25:08.213
- 00:25:08.213
- The corridor to the offices on the first floor00:25:14.248
- 00:25:14.248
- is quite a spacious area,00:25:18.931
- 00:25:18.931
- there are graphics by Marie Blabolilová installed.00:25:21.216
- 00:25:21.216
- They are all simple black and white etchings00:25:27.226
- 00:25:27.226
- depicting nature, forest, trees00:25:32.269
- 00:25:32.269
- and things of such character.00:25:36.905
- 00:25:36.905
- They correspond with the geometric shaping of the building very well.00:25:40.114
- 00:25:40.114
- History proffers us traditional schemes00:26:05.337
- 00:26:05.337
- inviting to forms arousing almost sacred respect.00:26:08.150
- 00:26:08.150
- But isn't such connection of money world with00:26:13.110
- 00:26:13.110
- a superior, power imperial, patriotic and moral mission00:26:15.430
- 00:26:15.430
- rather outdated, misleading and inappropriate in present days?00:26:21.182
- 00:26:21.182
- Money institution is neither noble nor dignified.00:26:27.870
- 00:26:27.870
- It's a primarily very useful and practical institution,00:26:33.233
- 00:26:33.233
- nothing more but nothing less.00:26:36.709
- 00:26:36.709
- Banks and savings banks from the 1990s00:26:41.727
- 00:26:41.727
- represent an utterly specific phenomenon00:26:44.361
- 00:26:44.361
- being unjustly criticized in connection with00:26:46.490
- 00:26:46.490
- failures of the incoming capitalism.00:26:48.967
- 00:26:48.967
- Striking bank forms were regarded as00:26:51.850
- 00:26:51.850
- a certain ethical problem with respect to the Czech modesty.00:26:54.240
- 00:26:54.240
- The citizens criticized there were no resources to meet00:26:58.068
- 00:26:58.068
- fundamental welfare system and despite that,00:27:01.148
- 00:27:01.148
- there were institutions burning with money built.00:27:04.651
- 00:27:04.651
- In the course of time, the bank luxury became00:27:11.066
- 00:27:11.066
- undesirable and unsuitable for bank institutions.00:27:13.109
- 00:27:13.109
- The representative style of the early 1990s00:27:17.416
- 00:27:17.416
- presenting for many people a sterile elegance of00:27:20.187
- 00:27:20.187
- stainless steel, polished marble and reflective glass00:27:22.499
- 00:27:22.499
- was soon replaced by a general standardization00:27:26.435
- 00:27:26.435
- of individual components, mainly interiors.00:27:28.664
- 00:27:28.664
- Once luxurious but operationally demanding buildings were abandoned00:27:31.941
- 00:27:31.941
- and became problematic buildings waiting for demolition.00:27:35.223
- 00:27:35.223
- The wave running through our towns was unreproducible00:27:40.227
- 00:27:40.227
- and the demand is getting close to being saturated.00:27:43.881
- 00:27:43.881
- The buildings will remain there as a monument of00:27:47.724
- 00:27:47.724
- the founding era with both00:27:49.619
- 00:27:49.619
- its prospects and maladies for a long time.00:27:51.426
- 00:27:51.426
- Was it really wasting an unrepeatable era?00:27:55.523
- 00:27:55.523
- Or has the era become unrepeatable?00:27:59.123
- 00:27:59.123
- Are we able to reassess this architecture twenty years later?00:28:02.112
- 00:28:02.112
- Shall we also discontinue the long-standing tendency00:28:05.936
- 00:28:05.936
- predominating at the Czech architectonic scene00:28:08.319
- 00:28:08.319
- which aims rather for moral education00:28:10.735
- 00:28:10.735
- than for courageous experiments incitement?00:28:13.393