The functionalist Avion hotel in Brno is completed, will open after 12 years in spring

Brno – The reconstruction of the functionalist Hotel Avion in the center of Brno, lasting more than five years, is complete; the rooms are furnished, only staff needs to be found. The hotel, designed by architect Bohuslav Fuchs on a plot only eight meters wide, has been closed since 2010, and work on its restoration began in 2016. The opening is planned for March of this year, said the hotel owner Stanislav Berousek to ČTK.

He originally planned to open the hotel at the beginning of 2020, but the coronavirus pandemic thwarted his plans. In the past two years, he has focused on furnishing the rooms and interior adjustments.

Among them stands out the colorful painting of some walls. Blue, yellow, and red tones complement the original work of the famous architect with the space and are repeated in the details of the individual rooms’ furnishings. "Initially, even the conservationists told us to keep all the walls white. However, architect Vladimír Ambroz, who also designed the furnishings for four rooms, told us it was nonsense, as this is a Bauhaus-style school where colors definitely belong. So we had a color survey done and indeed we found that some walls were colored," Berousek said. He added that he hesitated for a long time about using bold colors on the walls and furnishings, but ultimately decided to bring them back to the hotel.

In the reconstruction, the owner drew from both the project of architect Eva Jiřičná and the original plans of Bohuslav Fuchs. He placed long rounded and circular windows on the staircase, which Fuchs originally designed, but which the previous hotel owner replaced with others. For example, the metal windows facing the street, all staircases, wooden doors, and frames are original and only refurbished.

In the café and bistro on the ground floor, a window leading "into the wall" of the neighboring building was also restored. Originally, there was a small gap here, and daylight streamed into the café space. However, the gap disappeared after the reconstruction of the neighboring building, and the window now overlooks an unsightly wall, which is why it is covered by a patterned curtain.

After the reconstruction, the hotel offers 77 beds in 37 rooms. Especially the rooms on the highest floors offer unobstructed views of Brno, as well as the terrace on the top floor. Access to it will only be available to hotel guests. "The hotel will have four stars; we would like to apply for inclusion as one of the so-called design hotels in the future, but we need to determine the exact conditions," said the hotel director Maura Manziniová.

The first four floors of the hotel will be publicly accessible as a museum dedicated to Bohuslav Fuchs, functionalism, and other famous architects. "The tours will be guided, and we deliberately left the space almost empty, with just a few pieces of furniture, for example from Le Corbusier's workshop. This way, the entire space stands out better. After the tours are over, it will be possible to hold seminars, conferences, and even banquets in the space," said Stanislav Berousek.

The hotel management is now looking for 15 to 17 employees, from a chef to receptionists to maids. They will also operate a bistro and café on the ground floor, a lobby restaurant, and the museum.

According to Berousek, the most complicated part of the entire reconstruction, which lasted nearly five years, was the restoration of the so-called magnesite floors. "Having them made would have been very expensive. We had a recipe from an expert in Germany, but we had to modify it ourselves. It took about a year and a half and several revisions where we had to break up the floor before we came up with the correct procedure and ratio of the individual substances in the mixture," said construction manager Petr Strouhal.

Hotel Avion, according to the plans of Brno architect Bohuslav Fuchs, has been standing since 1928. It is unique due to its cramped plot of about eight meters wide. The hotel was built on the site of a demolished classicist house with a small inner courtyard. Fuchs had to work economically when designing the layout and space. The building is heritage-protected.