The Danubius Textile Factory, later known as the International Women's Day Factory - Plant 02, was founded with capital from the Hungarian bank and experienced industrialists in 1907. To build the factory, they invited the Viennese architect Julius Mayreder (1860-1911), who collaborated with his brothers, the architect Karol and the engineer Rudolf. He was a founding member of the Vienna Secession society. After the turn of the new century, his work moved from historicizing morphology to Art Nouveau. It was also at this time that he designed the Danubius Textile Factory in Bratislava.
The architectural expression of all the factory buildings had a touch of monumental architecture. Large glazed window openings alternated with profiled lesenes and bossage, complemented by small decorative elements. The flat roofs are lined with distinctive attics and parts of the buildings are topped with massive mansard or gabled roofs. In this case, the architect could be said to have created the architecture of an 'industrial palace'. The largest surviving building on the site, the spinning mill, has a modern reinforced concrete beam structure by Pittel+Brausewetter, which is wrapped in a meticulously designed facade with geometric elements with hints of decorative Art Nouveau. The main space consists of spacious halls with a grid of reinforced concrete columns, and all service areas (staircases, water tank, sanitary facilities, ventilation shafts) are extended from the disposition to the corners. This creates characteristic towers of different shapes and heights. The factory is a national cultural heritage site, and the administrative entrance building has also been preserved. At present (2021), the buildings are unused.
Bibliography:
FLEKR, Miroslav: Vznik, rozvoj a perspektívy textilného priemyslu v Bratislave. Bratislava, 1985. s. 51.
ŠAPP, Vlečka firmy: Danubius, textilné závody úč. spol. Bratislava. Situácia, M 1:1000, 1928, škatuľa č. 21.
Danubius –Textilwerke in Preßburg. Zeitschrift des Österreichischen Ingenieur – und Architekten – Vereines, 1911, s. 509.
Danubius: textilné závody účastinná spoločnosť, Bratislava. In: Bratislava hlavné mesto Slovenska. Pressburg Hauptstadt der Slowakei. Basel, Länderdienst A.G. 1943.
HALLON, Ľudovít: Miesto a úloha industriálneho dedičstva v dejinách priemyslu na príklade firmy Pittel a Brausewetter. In KRÁĽOVÁ, Eva (ed.): Stopy priemyselného dedičstva na Slovensku. Bratislava, Slovenská technická univerzita 2010, s. 82-97.
HALLON, Ľudovít: Firma Pittel a Brausewetter v dejinách Slovenska: priekopník betónového staviteľstva z Bratislavy. Bratislava, Typoset Print 2014.
