boutique DNB

The interior is located in the building of Komerční banka designed by Bohuslav Fuchs and Ernest Wiesner. It is a striking architecturally significant building of Czech interwar functionalism on Freedom Square in the center of Brno, serving banking for almost 80 years.

Given the attractive corner location of the space into the bank's through passage, one of the basic motives of the solution was the overall opening to the street zone and the creation of a certain gallery scale, a large display area.

Another important motive for the realization was based on the removal of the existing unnecessary and worthless elements.
The original space was designed using a conventional approach to interiors that supports general multifunctionality, especially used in similar commercial ground floors - a modular ceiling system with ventilation outlets and office-integrated fluorescent lighting, on the walls gradually layered plaster finished with contrasting red-yellow paint, and the floor was covered with unsuitable ceramic tiles, while the display was completely obscured by a signboard overlay in the upper section.

I consider the main concept and contribution of the project to be the real acknowledgment of the original reinforced concrete structure, which is the fundamental building core and supporting backbone of the architectural composition of the house.
The ceiling structure has not been disrupted throughout time in its construction or visual surface integrity and retains a pragmatic imprint of memory - traces of the former wooden formwork.
This step defined another subsequent construction process for interior modification.
All layers of plaster, surfaces, and walls were manually removed with a masonry hammer, whose acknowledged final trace connected to the originality of the context of the era of the building structure's establishment.
The pure presence of the artifact of original construction technology brought basic energy and visual aesthetic norms into the space.
This raw emotion is also reflected in other materials - solid ash boards, black steel, cement board, and cement screed in the context of the overall processing with an emphasis on austere construction craftsmanship detail.

The layout of the interior is pragmatically functionally divided with a variable sliding wall into a background and presentation area.
Two large sliding panels - a stand and a mirror - mutually create an entrance to the background and delineate the space of the changing room.
The central element of the interior is a mobile table made of fifteen-year naturally dried solid ash supported on a steel structure.
The overall mass of the table form is supported at three points. In the same material variant, a spacious bench is also designed at the entrance.
Electrical wiring is visibly pulled with a visual accent, and simple linear lighting combines a cool spectrum at the bottom with a warm spectrum that illuminates the reinforced concrete surface of the ceiling.

For the presentation of the DNB brand, a separate mobile stand is used, complemented by another stand located on the cement board panel of the sliding wall.
In front of the displays, the original system hangers of the former modular ceiling have been intentionally left, from which the individual displayed models float freely.

The project of the DNB interior realization in Brno has brought with it many concrete themes, of which I consider the topic of finding a broader context of the essence of the original over the usual principles of inserting new typified elements to be the most significant.
Another essential theme is the way of grasping and handling the space - unifying and harmonizing in the direct reduction of the construction process in the real possibilities of execution and time.