Experimentálka is a small residential complex with 250 apartments located between the Krasňany housing estate and the original construction of Rača. In 1959, this area was intended for experimental testing of new types of residential construction and innovative building technologies that were to be implemented after 1963. The design of the apartment buildings was entrusted to designers who already had previous experience in designing mass housing construction. Their task was to test forms that would expand the material base and at the same time increase the flexibility of apartment layouts. In the end, the projects of three design teams were implemented.
Under the leadership of Emil Vician, an elongated cast concrete building consisting of eight sections was built parallel to the street. Diagonally related were two four-storey staircase apartment buildings, on which Karol Paluš, Radko Auer and Juraj Scharnagl tested penosilicates for construction. The interior spatial composition consisted of a system of cabinet partitions and lightweight mobile partitions. The entire complex was complemented by a high-rise landmark in the form of a twelve-story point block with a vacuum-formed steel-concrete skeleton by Štefan Svetko and Mária Krukovská. The composition of solitary buildings scattered across the slope was complemented on the north side by the KTB 07 tower blocks, which were loosely followed by the more extensive Barónka housing estate. Over time, some technical shortcomings of the experimental solutions became apparent. Svetko and Krukovská's tower block had to be closed and vacated in the early 1980s due to the dilapidated condition of the building envelope. The residential building was later rebuilt, but with a significantly different architectural design.
Bibliography:
KUSÝ, Martin: Architektúra na Slovensku 1945 – 1975. Bratislava, Pallas 1976. s. 121, 144.
GROSS, Kamil: Poznámky k experimentálnej bytovej výstavbe. Projekt 2, 1960, 3-4, s. 34 - 45.
MORAVČÍKOVÁ, Henrieta a kol.: Bratislava Atlas sídlisk. Bratislava, Slovart 2011, s. 136 - 143.
