In its conception and urban and architectural design, the complex of Brno Children’s Hospital, which opened in 1954, draws heavily on the interwar functionalist traditions of the city. On the sloping terrain above Lužánky park on the edge of Černá Pole, the architect Bedřich Rozehnal created an extraordinarily well-elaborated hospital block, built on the site of the former children’s hospital from the end of the 19th century. The new hospital was built on the basis of the real experiences of doctors and patients and featured a Y-shaped in-patient block. This complex is undoubtedly one of the finest examples of buildings constructed in Brno at that time. Moreover, it was created in a period when there was an increasing tendency towards socialist realism, which was certainly not well-disposed to support modernist impulses. After several years of use, it became necessary to add other modern medical facilities to it, and thus Rozehnal’s hospital, consisting of one interconnected block with several connecting wings, was, in the 1960s, complemented by the new stand-alone pavilion of the 2nd Department of Pathological Anatomy.
The architectural duo of Karel Volavý (who designed a pavilion of the psychiatric hospital in Černovice and the Slovnaft polyclinic in Bratislava) and Eduard Říha created the design for this new medical institute in the form of an L-shaped three-storey building, which adjoins Rozehnal’s hospital on the western side along Kunzova street. The institute has a distinctly horizontal character thanks to the visual separation of the individual floors, and the top floor facing the street is characterized by a light-coloured plaster strip with sash windows and contrasting brown muntins. Dominating the east facade is a clearly defined line of triple windows in the protruding front bay window on the first floor, along with subtle, gently winding entrance steps leading onto the street. The ground floor and part of the first floor is clad with brown tiles, which sets the colour tone for the whole building. The interior staircase, located in the section that connects the two wings of the building, is illuminated by a series of short strips of windows.
The institute building is still used for medical purposes, as it currently houses the Centre of Molecular Biology and Gene Therapy. The original architectural expression of the building is still clearly visible, despite a few unpreventable building modifications, including the replacement of all the windows and the lightly glazed entrances with new plastic versions.
KE