Brno Exhibition Centre

The Brno Exhibition Centre created for the Exhibition of Contemporary Culture in Czechoslovakia in 1928 and is a unique complex of buildings, one of the most complete collections of Czech modern architecture in the Czech Republic. 

 In the 1920s, the city of Brno was experiencing dynamic growth, and the construction of this modern exhibition space was one of the peaks of the city’s architectural and cultural development at the time. The progressive modern architecture of the permanent new exhibition grounds was widely acclaimed by both professional circles and the general public. Two of the most impressive exhibition halls from this period, the Palace of Industry and Trade with an entrance rotunda (today Pavilion A), designed by Josef Kalous, and the Pavilion of Commerce and Trade, with its glass observation tower (today Pavilion G), designed by Bohumír Čermák, are still used for exhibitions and trade fairs today.

In addition to the exhibition halls, the exhibition centre also included other buildings, among them the Functionalist cinema with a café, which also served as a theatre. This was designed by Emil Králík for the Exhibition of Contemporary Culture. Reflecting the period’s interest in housing issues, the exhibition centre also featured a model family house (designed by Oldřich Starý) and a model rental block of flats by the Czechoslovak Work Union (designed by Josef Havlíček). The pavilion of the Applied School of Arts in Prague, designed by Pavel Janák, took the form of a model house for an art dealer. Thanks to fortunate circumstances, the exhibition centre avoided major damage during the Second World War, and many of these original pavilions and buildings are still in existence today.

Owing to its advantageous central location within the country and the capacity of its exhibition halls, the Brno Exhibition Centre was chosen in the 1950s as the venue for engineering exhibitions and international trade fairs, becoming a long-standing showcase for Czechoslovak industry. The pavilions added for the trade fairs at the end of the 1950s introduced new, unique structural solutions and enriched the exhibition centre aesthetically. This is particularly true for Pavilions C and Z, which feature large-span domes designed by Ferdinand Lederer. The generous spatial concept also allowed for further development of the exhibition centre in the 1990s, with the gradual addition of modern new steel halls (V, F, and P) in the western part of the complex.

The historic pavilions and buildings at the Brno Exhibition Centre are excellent examples of period architectural production and collectively represent a cross-section of Czechoslovak architectural history in the 20th century. This is aptly described by the title "Building of the Century," which the Brno Exhibition Centre received in 2000 in a poll celebrating the successes of Czechoslovak architecture. Thanks to its scale and the variety of its preserved historic exhibition architecture, the Brno complex is unique even in the European context.