Project Details
- Project Name
- MY DVA Group Showroom
- Location
-
Brno ,Czech Republic
- Client/Owner
- MY DVA group a.s.
- Project Scope
- Adaptive Reuse
- Size
- 5,920 sq. feet
- Year Completed
- 2016
- Shared by
- Ashleigh Popera
- Team
-
Ondrej Chybik, Architect
Michal Kristof, Architect
Victor Cojocaru
Martin Holy
Vojtech Kouril
Sarka Kubinova
Ondrej Mundl
Matej Strba
- Project Status
- Built
- Cost
- $100,000
FROM THE ARCHITECTS:
The transformation of a former car show room on the outskirts of a housing estate into a site of the MY DVA group, whose focus is the production of office, school and metal furniture, represents another finished structure of the young architecture firm CHYBIK + KRISTOF Architects & Urban Designers from Brno, Czech Republic. The former single-story building of poor aesthetic quality is turned into a building with a new, easily remembered façade composed of more than 900 black plastic seats. The façade is conceived abstractly, functioning also as a banner advertisement for the firm itself. After finishing a simple refurbishment of its interior, a new flexible showroom was created presenting the individual segments of the firm ́s production in specific, thematically arranged settings.
Vinohrady is the name of one of the oldest housing estates built in Brno in the first half of the 1980s. The car showroom itself was set up in the 1990s, and is a part of a line of nearby commercial buildings, bordering with the four-lane Zarosicka road, which, however, do not aesthetically enhance the area in any way. The former state of the building was technically and morally outdated, and from a formal point of view, did not correspond with the needs of society. Given the fact that it was a temporary investment in the form of a rented property and the firm had already been using the premises, the proposed solution had to be cheap and fast. The task was “do it cheaply, ideally for free,ˮ architects Ondrej Chybik and Michal Kristof reminisce.
The MY DVA group is a top domestic supplier of office, school and metal furniture, also focusing on the concepts and realizations of commercial and educational interiors, including some atypical elements. The choice of material, which had to be based on the usage of a minimum amount of money, but with a maximum effect to enhance the former building, therefore, had to be connected with the firm ́s production. Thus, the building is cladded by a homogenous product, a plastic black chair for about 80 CZK/1 piece, without any greater adjustments of the exterior. It creates an abstract texture which reflects what is going on inside without another banner advertisement.
“What we used is a basic form of an interior chair called Vicenza, which the supplier delivers on a regular basis. In this case, however, we used black granulate for the outdoors because it is resistant to different weather conditions, especially UV light,ˮ the architects describe. The individual seats are fixed on a structure made from steel sections fixed on the façade. In case of mechanical damage, it is possible to change out each piece for a new one, and even cleaning the façade can be done easily once or twice a year by a high-pressure cleaner. The concept of the interior represents the second level of the project and consists of two parts: a showroom and offices with a background for the employers. The inside of the building was demolished. A presentation space for the showroom was created by enlarging the former entrance hall at the center of the layout and is demarcated by polycarbonate partitions. The floor is unified by means of white screed, on the ceiling remain former fair faced concrete panels and all the new wirings are exposed. Three circular galleries are embedded into this newly created space, representing three different segments of production – school furniture, office furniture and design pieces. The circular cutouts are demarcated by white textile curtains the full height of the space that can be closed or let open. Interiors of the cutouts represent three different settings where the flooring material, means of lighting and the color of the light itself are aimed to correspond with the natural setting that the furniture is intended for. The interstices can be filled with various products or pieces of art, and they can be used as a common room for the employees or for get-togethers with clients. The whole space is based on the principle of a gallery which can be easily adjusted according to the actual needs.
Offices for the employees are preserved along the perimeter of the structure. They are illuminated by daylight, have ventilation, and are unified by a gray carpet and white paint.
This description has been lightly edited for clarity.