Hotel Avion in Brno opens after 12 years in trial operation

Brno - The Functionalist Hotel Avion on Česká Street in the center of Brno is opening to the public today after 12 years of renovation. During the day, a booking system for accommodation on the hotel’s website is expected to go live, and the hotel café and bistro on the ground floor opened before noon. This was stated by the hotel owner Stanislav Berousek.

"For now, we are opening in trial operation; the key is to launch the booking system," Berousek said. He anticipates that the final details will be fine-tuned within three weeks. "We will inform about the opening hours of the museum (dedicated to architecture) on the website," he added. Among the ten employees are six women who fled the war from Ukraine, and they are primarily involved in cleaning and kitchen work.

The heritage-protected hotel, designed by architect Bohuslav Fuchs on a plot just eight meters wide, has been closed since 2010, and renovation work began in 2016. The owner invested tens of millions of crowns into it, though he does not specify the exact amount.

In the reconstruction, the owner based his work both on the project of architect Eva Jiřičná and on Fuchs' original plans. He placed elongated rounded and circular windows on the staircase that Fuchs originally designed, but the original hotel owner replaced them with different ones. 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 that leads "into the wall" of the neighboring building was also restored. Originally, there was a small gap here that allowed daylight to flow into the café space. However, the gap disappeared after the neighboring building was renovated, and the window now looks out onto an unsightly wall, hence it is covered by a patterned curtain.

After the renovation, the hotel offers 77 beds in 37 rooms. Especially the rooms on the highest floors offer unobstructed views of Brno, as does the terrace on the highest floor. However, only hotel guests will have access to it.

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 intentionally left the space almost empty, with only a few pieces of furniture, for instance, from the workshop of Le Corbusier. This way, the whole space will stand out better. After the tours, it will be possible to hold seminars, conferences, or even banquets in the premises," Berousek stated earlier.

Hotel Avion, according to the plans of Brno architect Bohuslav Fuchs, has stood since 1928. It is rare for its cramped plot, which is about eight meters wide. The hotel was built on the site of a demolished classical building with a small inner courtyard. Fuchs had to work economically in designing the layout and space. The building is heritage-protected.