In the town development plans of 1967, the architect/restorer Lubomír Reml declared that the planned housing estate at Bernardka should also include a building for public services – a shopping centre. Reml did not envisage a crèche or nursery school, as the children were to attend these in the “old” Vertex housing estate above the grammar school.
The designers of the first draft for the housing estate, Prague architects Ivo Loos and Jindřich Malátek, came up with a graceful design reflecting their fondness of the modern sculpture movement. The single-storey building with a cellar was positioned on the east side of Smetana (today's Komenský) square so as not to block the view of the centre of the facade of the Girls' School with its tower. The building was designed as an atrium so that the inner courtyard, intended for the manipulation of goods and packaging, would not be visible to the public. The delicate, subtle facade with aluminium frames, which was to match the plate glass of the generously-sized shop windows, contrasted with the raw concrete lintels, over which there were two sculptured cooling units in their pure industrial form. There was also space set aside for other services than just a shop, e.g. a canteen.
However, as was the case with the housing estate (02-1048) and hotel (02-1053), Loos and Malátová's design was never carried out as the authorities claimed that the construction would not be rentable. In 1976, Ferdinand Trkal of the Choceň branch of Stavoprojekt Hradec Králové, came up with a new design that enclosed the area of the square, but was nothing more than a standardized product. As opposed to the previous design, the building reacted negatively with the surrounding environment, above all due to the fact that the utility section was above ground level. This increased the floor level of the shop itself, which was accessible only by a ramp and three stairways. Moreover, the rear facade, reserved for goods access, is unappealing.
The building was, however, at least partially “humanized” thanks to the addition of a substantial mosaic on the facade overlooking Havlíčkova Street. The building regulations of the period stipulated that up to 4% of the budget of every state building must go towards artistic decoration. The mosaic, called The River of Flowers, was created by the artist and graphic designer Ludmila Jandová who lived and worked in nearby Osík. The artwork was installed in 1978 and with its dimensions of 450 x 1800cms is the artist's biggest mosaic. The delicate composition combines river waves and colourful flowers over which a flock of birds is in flight. Such neutral motifs with stylized flora and fauna themes were typical for artists designing art for public spaces during the Normalization period and striving to avoid political themes.
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