[ Stories ]
Last days of the Kyjev
SLOVAKIA / Bratislava
Hotel Kyjev was designed by Slovak architect Ivan Matusik as part of the wider central shopping complex in Bratislava Centrum known as Kammene Namestie, completing in 1973.
A stunning example of modernist design from the socialist period, its central location and general dilapidation have tempted developers for many years.
Redevelopment is currently scheduled for 2008.
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"..the Kyjev is a tall, skinny twenty-story apartment block, standing on a plinth with a trashy shopping centre on a through road at the edge of the old town. You can't deny that it has a certain scruffy charm, even though the travertine cladding is dropping from the facade, piece by piece. As much as the tourist centre of Bratislava has been commercially prettified, this is pure ex-communist dilapidation.
With an assiduous 'At your wish, madam!' the doorman swept me into a foyer that I initially couldn't see at all. But as my eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, a wonderland of 1960s design gradually emerged around me: a travertine floor that rose up in a chic curve to become the travertine wall facing, bundles of spherical lamps ... even the frames around the lift doors were rounded.
No question: I had just stepped into a time machine..."
Anneke Bockern
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Story is available through Anzenberger