Ingstav – Guided Tour

The administrative and operational building of the Ingstav national construction company is one of the most significant architectural achievements of the late 1960s in the former Czechoslovakia. Designed in 1968 by architect Ivan Ruller, who had recently worked on the interiors of the Janáček Theatre and the Slovnaftu vocational school project in Bratislava, the building was completed in 1970. It stands out for its structural and technological innovations, large open-plan offices, transparent glass facades, and the integration of artworks in both the exterior and interior.

The guided tour with architectural historian Klára Eliášová will focus on the building's architectural and technical solutions and its artistic decoration, created by Vladimír Preclík, Zdeněk Macháček, Pavel Navrátil, Miloslav Buřival, and Bohumír Matal. The tour will place Ingstav in the context of post-war Czechoslovak architecture and show how the building, through a synthesis of modernist and brutalist tendencies, represents the turning point between the 1960s and 1970s.

Klára Eliášová specializes professionally in industrial cities (particularly the activities of the Baťa company) and post-war architecture and possibilities for its preservation. She has participated in NAKI research projects and is co-author of the catalogue Baťa House: Disappearing Elements of Zlín Architecture and contributed to the publication Panelák 1. Since 2012, she has been a member of the 4AM/Forum for Architecture and Media association, and from 2014 to 2019 she was involved in the operation of the cultural space PRAHA in Brno. She works as a guide for architectural walks and author of texts for the Brno, Plzeň, and Zlín architectural manuals; since 2020 she has been its editor and expert guarantor.

The tour takes place as part of the Brno Architectural Manual project: bam.brno.cz