What does the creative centre mean to us today and under what circumstances can it work? Creativity and creative thinking is fostered by mistakes, seemingly unfinished solutions, and suddenly emerging contrasts. The question is: How can we support creative thinking by using the historical substance and the baroque and contemporary spaces?
The original baroque prison was built in a standard square shape and had two rectangular courtyards. Later when the building was extended to the North, another courtyard was added in the direction of Bratislavská. In our plan this part is removed to be replaced by a more permeable mass with openings. This way the public area in the street and the event space inside the building can work together. Meanwhile the two courtyards of the baroque prison operate as the inner space of the creative centre.
Our intervention was minimal, we only planned the necessary interventions to the fabric of the baroque building. By no means did we want to erase time or history from the building. The signs of wear and tear on the walls are “renovated” and put on display interpreted as “found objects” in a new context. Spaces in the building were expanded according to the function of the workshop or the offices.
The new building takes the place of the wings added in the 19th century. The lower and upper masses of the part towards Bratislavská were removed alternately, thus the gaps and openings formed correspond to the rhythm of the prison wings and their courtyards, while their heights match the heights of the historical eaves and ridge. In the new building large spaces (exhibition space, library, auditorium, rehearsal rooms) were packed on top of each other like boxes.
At first sight the baroque prison and the contemporary building have nothing in common. Vaulted, smaller rooms stand opposite easily dividable, large rooms that open into each other. On the one hand there are the pitched roof and the small openings, on the other the stacked cubes and the large size glass surfaces. Where do the Baroque and the Contemporary meet? The new building is determined by the historic building. Its floor plan is defined by the extended lines of the historic building, while its cross section by the original heights of the eaves and ridge.
