Emil Belluš's choice of study location symbolises the development in Central Europe. From September 1918, he spent his first year in Budapest, the capital of the Hungarian part of the Habsburg Monarchy, to which Slovakia belonged. As there was still no suitable university in Slovakia, he went to Prague to study architecture, as Czechoslovakia was founded in 1918. His teacher was Antonín Engel, who designed very heavy, neo-classical buildings. He studied until 1923 and started to work in Bratislava in 1925.
Engel's influence can often be seen in Belluš's work, for example on the Czechoslovak National Bank in Bratislava. He seems to have repeatedly forged his own path to international modernism. Belluš became a key person in Slovak architecture. These buildings in particular can all be found on our website.
In Bratislava Belluš creates buildings that emphasise the city's metropolitan character.
He was very involved in the founding of the Slovak Technical University in Bratislava (Slovenská technická univerzita v Bratislave). He co-founded the Faculty of Architecture and Building Construction. He was keen to establish the university in order to anchor education on architecture and urbanism in Slovakia. He trained many young architects until 1970.
After World War II, he designed social buildings in communist Czechoslovakia. For the Mladá Garda student residence in Bratislava in particular, he utilised the ideological guidelines of Socialist Realism. However, the trend usinmg neo-classical elements was already present in his architectuaral style in the course of the 1930s. In the interior design, however, he was able to implement particularly functionalist ideas in order to organise the life of the students in the shared rooms.
The Emil Belluš Award (Cena Emila Belluša) has been presented in his honour since 1990 as a tribute to the life's work of people who have dealt with architecture.
Sources
- youtube.com Emil Belluš
- Wikipedia Emil Belluš
- Dulla, Moravčíková: Architektúra Slovenska v 20. storočia, 2002
Buildings
Bratislava, Slovakia
Propeller