The Secondary School of Art and Design and Higher Vocational School Brno was established in 2012 through the merger of two secondary schools with long-standing traditions and two higher vocational schools in Brno.
The idea of establishing an independent secondary-level weaving school in Brno – the first such textile school in Austria – , was sparked by the great success of Brno's advanced textile industry at the 1851 World Exhibition in London. A year later, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry founded a craft school with a spinning and weaving department to educate skilled workers and workshop managers. Classes were taught in both German and Czech in the form of evening courses on Saturdays and Sundays.
The school was officially founded by a decree of the Ministry of Culture and Education on 17 July 1860, with the school located at Fabriksgasse (today's Úzká street). This school trained workers for higher positions, especially company directors and owners. As interest in Brno's weaving school grew and the Austrian textile industry developed, the school's capacity soon became insufficient. In April 1896, the building commission designated a suitable location for a new school building on Franz Joseph street (today’s Francouzská 101). The plans were the work of the Brno architect Josef Nebehostený (1852-1921), a graduate of the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. The school, which began operations in the autumn of 1898, was equipped with modern spinning and weaving workshops for wool production and later for silk and cotton fabric production. It also had specialist classrooms, a laboratory, a bleaching facility, a dyeing workshop, and a printing shop. The school was officially recognized as a state industrial school in June 1899 and was named the Imperial and Royal Vocational School for the Textile Industry. The school also housed a newly established research institute.
