Designblok will open the former Expo 58 restaurant

The Designblok design showcase will take place from October 25 to 28 with its main venue at the Holešovice Exhibition Grounds. For its 20th anniversary, the theme chosen by the organizers is celebration. The Expo building will be accessible on October 28 and 29, during which the Expospektiva project is planned, featuring lectures on the Brussels style and furniture demonstrations. "We want to revive the atmosphere of the time when the restaurant was one of the most popular places in Prague," say the agency representatives. People can send videos, photographs, written memories, or other materials related to the restaurant from the 1960s to the 1980s to expospektiva@expo58.cz.

In 1958, the building by architects František Cubr, Josef Hrubý, and Zdeněk Pokorný received two awards at the World Expo in Brussels for its innovative mix of modern technologies, architectural design, and functionality, and it also received the highest honor, the Golden Star.

After its grand success, the former restaurant was transported to Prague and rebuilt in the heavily visited Letná Park. In 1964, Expo 58 was declared a cultural monument. The second part of the exhibition, the exhibition pavilion itself, was rebuilt at the Prague Exhibition Grounds, where it served until the tragic fire in the early 1990s.

The bustling restaurant did not live its second life for long; in the 1990s it was auctioned off during privatization and subsequently changed owners several times and fell into disrepair. Since the beginning of the new millennium, it has housed an advertising agency.