The renovated functionalist café will remind Brno residents of Rotterdam

Brno - In Brno, the exterior construction of the functionalist café Era in the prestigious Černá Pole district is being completed after a year. Interior renovations are expected to begin next week, which should be brightly colored in the style of the avant-garde Dutch painting school De Stijl, according to the original decor of the café from 1929. Jan Velek, the architect in charge of the building's restoration, told ČTK. If everything goes well, the café, which seems to have been plucked straight from the famous Rotterdam café Café De Unie, could open by the end of the year.
The exterior of the building, designed by Brno architect Josef Kranz, is starkly gray, but according to Velek, it should surprise new visitors with the colorfulness of its interior. "The staircase was originally red, and there was also blue in the interior," Velek stated. Architects reportedly revealed the original colors almost by detective methods, as they only had black-and-white photographs available.
Kranz's color concept was said to be inspired by the Dutch interwar movement De Stijl, which worked with only three primary colors: blue, yellow, and red. According to Velek, the building designed by Kranz was conceived in austere shapes based on the café in Dutch Rotterdam, which was designed by De Stijl architect Jacobus Johannes Pieter Oud in 1925.
Among other things, Kranz gained experience working with architect Bohuslav Fuchs, who designed the functionalist Avion hotel in the center of Brno.
According to Velek, the villa will also be furnished in the coming weeks, likely with products from the Thonet company. Guests were supposedly seated on "thonet" chairs in the Era during the interwar period.
"Some legislative issues still need to be resolved. If everything goes well, the café could open by the end of the year," said David Kuchař from the civic association Studio 21 to ČTK. This association is responsible for the restoration of the monument, which will cost a total of 12 million CZK. Seven million CZK of that amount was obtained by Studio 21 from European grants.
The café was nationalized at the end of the 1950s and later served as a pub and storage. Today, it belongs to a private owner, and Studio 21 will rent the spaces.