The assessed construction is registered in the central list of immovable cultural monuments and is also part of the historic zone of Bratislava city - CMO.
The bank and residential building took over the basic divisions of the classicist palace type, such as a staircase and a communication system of corridors. It is a lavish eclectic building – a residential and banking palace with elements of neoclassicism and art nouveau on the facades with the motif of a neo-baroque tower in the corner of the building. The building’s function as a bank on the ground floor was also indicated by the still-preserved decoration with a sculpture of a beehive – a symbol of thrift, on a shield with a beveled corner. The precious art nouveau decoration of the interior and the original furniture of the magnificent bank hall was destroyed in 1940. The rare decoration of the staircase windows with etched art nouveau decor was also destroyed. The building was built in 1910 – 1912.
| Project name | Office building of the Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic in Bratislava |
| Typology | Office building, reconstruction, listed historical building |
| Location | Bratislava, Slovakia |
| Year | 2019 |
| Status | Project |
| Design team | Ing.arch. Tomáš Dimun, Ing.arch. Miroslava Mišurová, Ing.arch. Norbert Konrád, Ing.arch. Dominika Huttová, Ing. Michal Bakočka |
It is a brick building, three-storey, with a sub-basement with an additionally used attic, created sometimes after 1989. The building with the original residential function and with the operation of the bank on the ground floor later underwent several modifications and reconstructions for the purposes of multi-function and housing. It is currently owned by the Slovak Republic and is used for administrative purposes. The Polish Institute is located here and there is one apartment. The building is currently only partially used. The building is probably based on concrete strips, on foundation strips made of solid fired bricks and stone. The upper structure has a longitudinal structural system, the so called triple tract. The perimeter masonry as well as the central load-bearing wall is made of solid fired bricks 45-60 cm thick.
The ceilings of the superstructure are wooden beams with a wooden cover on the underside and plaster (in some cases with stucco decoration, as in the entrance hall by the staircase and in some rooms. The floors are divided according to the character of the rooms. The original paving is in the corridors and the staircase consists of stone steps (in relatively good condition) as well as its metal banister. The other rooms off the staircase have carpets, new floor tiles and probably the original wood floors will appear under the carpets. Upstairs in the attic, there are tiles and a laminate floating floor in disrepair.
The visual inspection did not detect any cracks or cracks in the plaster and masonry, except for an oblique crack, probably only in the plaster on the 2nd floor on the gable wall adjacent to the neighboring building on SNP Square. So, apart from this one crack, nothing was found to indicate static failures of the load-bearing parts of the object.
The biggest problem is leakage, which was found in rooms from the ground floor to the attic. This condition is caused by the long-term neglected maintenance of facades, plumbing products and the roof, which is in poor technical condition. These factors, together with weather influences, cause facades to leak, plaster destruction, damage to morphological elements as well as corrosion of metal elements on facades. In the interior, this is manifested by the degradation of the internal plasters and damage to the load-bearing wooden elements of the wooden ceilings, which in certain places show a state of emergency.
The stone parts of the facades – the entrance portal, entrance and window linings, stairs, plinths and parterre cladding are dirty, damaged and defaced with graffiti inscriptions. The courtyard facades are also in bad technical condition, very polluted and degrading.
The attic is in bad technical condition. Although the roof structure does not show static faults, it is necessary to replace the roof covering and, above all, to replace the complete set of all plumbing products as well as the old skylights. Chimney bodies must also be repaired or rehabilitated. Since the attic was built sometime in the nineties, it is likely that all roof layers (vapor-permeable foil, thermal insulation, etc.) as well as the upper wooden cover must be replaced. In the slopes, instead of plasterboard, plastered Heraclite boards are used, the joints of which are falling out and destroyed. The lightning rod must also be replaced completely.
The fillings of exterior openings, both window and door on the 1st and 2nd floors, are original, installed during construction at the beginning of the last century. On the basis of the inspection, it must be concluded that some of the fillings of the openings of the facade show elements of a state of disrepair, mainly in the courtyard part of the building, which make further use impossible. This is an unsatisfactory condition of the exterior window fillings of the openings, which do not fulfill their original purpose, resulting in wetting into the existing vertical and horizontal building structures. It also concerns deformed connections of window fillings with building structures and inadequate surface treatments – plastering in the affected areas of the fillings. Due to their age, use and unprofessional interventions during use, windows and doors show partial damage to the frames themselves, seals, fittings and tinkering parts, including degraded surface treatments. The original construction of window and door panels in their current state must be refurbished or replaced with new ones.