Architektonická kancelář Burian – Křivinka

Aleš Burian was born in Brno in 1956 and, in 1981, graduated as a student of architecture at the University of Technology there. His colleague Gustav Křivinka, born in 1961 and also a native of Brno, graduated at the Faculty of Architecture of the same university in 1986. Together, they set up an architectural design studio in 1991. They are both members of the Brno association Obecní dům Brno, which was founded in 1989 by the architects Petr Hrůša and Petr Pelčák and which the town architect Zdeňka Vydrová is also a member of.

The Burian – Křivinka architectural design studio immediately made a name for itself in the 1990s with its design for an office block in Lazaretní Street in Brno (1996). The architecture historian Rostislav Švácha included the building in his book Česká architektura a její přísnost (Czech Architecture and its Austerity), a sort of canon of architecture of the first fifteen years after the November 1989 revolution. The first undertaking in Litomyšl by Burian and Křivinka is mentioned here – the sports hall in Masaryk Street, built in 1998 (C4-1145a). Both buildings illustrate well the studio's roots in the Purist Modernist style of pre-war Brno, with the hall in Litomyšl revealing its cues taken from high-tech, exposed construction style buildings. Elements of a technical nature also prevail in the design of the stadium grandstand built in 2003 at the Černá hora sports centre in Litomyšl (C3-1061a). In the new millennium Burian and Křivinka's architecture acquired somewhat softer features, their buildings are not as plain, and are richer in colour and choice of materials. This is evident in the case of the studio's design for an apartment block in the Luční Quarter of the Old Town in Uherské Hradiště (2000) which, contrary to a fixed street facade with ground-floor shops and loggia, features a segmented side facade, an inner atrium with elevated walkways, an exterior staircase, red rendering and wooden design features.

Civil architecture dominates the studio's portfolio – schools, scientific institutions, hospitals and sports grounds. A noteworthy building is the Faculty of Informatics building built in 2007 at Masaryk University in Brno, a vast complex of new and historical buildings on the premises of the former Carthusian monastery in Brno-Královo Pole. It features a glass, sound-proofed, street facade, ground-floor shops with a passageway, a subtle metal stairway and interior and exterior walkways and ramps. It also includes a sophisticated reconstruction of the historical buildings and well thought-out, pleasant communal spaces. The Burian – Křivinka studio has had a lot of experience with modifying public spaces, either in Litomyšl or in other towns (Moravská Třebová, Lipnice nad Sázavou, Havlíčkův Brod), and in recent years has taken on the reconstruction of the town square in Velká Biteš (2014) and the entrance tract to the Punkva Caves in Moravský kras (2015).

In direct contrast to these profoundly town and contextual buildings, Burian and Křivinka designed the controversial high-rise AZ Tower in Brno in 2013.
 

1995
Diagnostics pavilion of Masaryk Oncology Institute, Brno
2000
Apartment block, Staré Město near Uherské Hradiště
2001
Conversion of part of the basement of the Town Museum into a tea room, Litomyšl
2002
Apartment blocks, Znojmo-Přímětice
2006
Accident and emergency medicine pavilion of Brothers of Charity Hospital, Brno-Štýřice
2007
Faculty of Informatics, Masaryk University, Brno-Královo Pole
2007
PET centre Masaryk Oncology Institute, Staré Brno
2011
Revitalization of town centre, Havlíčkův Brod
2014
Revitalization of Masaryk Square, Velká Bíteš
2015
Entrance tract to Punkva Caves, Moravský kras