Supermarket on Mendlovo náměstí

The supermarket on the southern edge of the square Mendlovo náměstí at the corner of Křížová street is one of the partial results of the complete reconstruction of the traditional heart of the Staré Brno district, which took place in the early 1960s. The architect and urban planner František Kočí from the Brno architectural design organisation Stavoprojekt, who several years earlier, in 1954, had also worked on the designs for the space in front of Jihlava station, drew up the urban plan to transform the area adjacent to the newly renovated exhibition grounds. The original area of ​​the square was controversially cleared of the historical building of the Staré Brno Town Hall, the mill race on the Svratka river with functionalist lido by Bohuslav Fuchs and several other burgher palaces and was transformed into a transport hub surrounded by prefabricated concrete panel buildings lining the approach to the exhibition grounds from the city centre.

František Kočí, who also worked on the designs for other Brno housing estates in the 1970s (such as Kohoutovice and Komín), situated the main shopping amenity for the Staré Brno-north housing estate right up against two buildings facing the square. The two-storey shopping centre with grocery shop on the ground floor is the substructure for a twelve-storey, T03B-type tower block and enters its façade. Kočí patterns the façade of building with a rapid sequence of slightly sunken window panes covering a substantial part of the floor and separated by protruding half-columns. Visitors can thus enjoy impressive views of Špilberk Castle while shopping. He inserted the main entrance deep into a corner section of the ground floor and emphasized it with a protruding cornice between the floors and a small flight of stairs onto Mendlovo náměstí. With this recessed area, the architect provided customers with a comfortable covered entrance space in an arcade with large round columns.

Today, the building is still used as a shopping centre. It is still possible to make out the original form of the building, but it is plastered with all kinds of advertising, including adhesive foil on the windows, an electronic advertising board and traditional billboards, which all contributes to the visual smog and chaos of this busy and poorly designed transport hub.

KE