ČSOB branch Lannova in České Budějovice

Even in the year ninety, there was a hectic mood among people. Back then, we won a relatively small, undemanding competition for the reconstruction of the local branch of ČSOB, our first bigger opportunity to create “big happenings.” Enthusiasm plus a positive vibe, excitement for tomorrow, we were literally vibrating like a steam boiler under pressure. It was also then that the motto was born: “When it’s about money, let’s be cheerful!”. In critical contexts, the bank is described as deconstructivism or even high-tech. Neither one nor the other. Pressure, joy of life, and all of that expressively transferred into matter. Nothing “invented,” nothing copied, just a simple transcription of the mood, and to achieve it, means that are commonly available are used. It’s a play of materials, shapes, and spaces that intertwine, leap through each other, and everything is accompanied by a blind colored commentary. Urbanistically, the building is located almost in the city center, but with perfect access for cars from the city ring to the underground sections, under the gardens. For pedestrians, there is a main street towards the train station - the square. Literally on the pulse of the city. Essentially, it is about the transformation of matter. The mass of substantial masonry, almost regular in plan, transitions into a reinforced concrete skeleton. Its construction is then completely unraveled, and the building ends with a glass wall that ripples, suspended on the skeleton’s structures, like a curtain in a gust of wind. No reconstruction, but transformation. Some interpretations of the details are so primitive that the eyes keep returning to them. The technological background rather reflects its normality to the naturalness of things. Technological processes that require immense discipline and high costs are not proposed here. Everything is more natural and simple. The bank is also associated with a beautiful collaboration with the Romani artist Paly Paštika. To this day, I admire his resilience in a xenophobic society such as ours, and I will admire his remarkable artistic talent. We asked him for an artistic collaboration, to solve the coloring of the entire object. He had a basic concept at his disposal, from which he developed an amazing colorful, dynamic solution for the whole building. Including two paintings of a Romani wedding, which today is unfortunately painted over, and a cat that still exists on the last floor near the meeting room.