Young Naturalists' Club, today's Iuventa, was the first comprehensive centre of science clubs of the socialist "pioneer" youth in Slovakia. In addition to the main building proudly situated on a hilltop terrace, the complex also encompassed a series of greenhouses, stables, livestock facilities, an amphitheatre and an outdoor swimming pool. The main building was created at the precise moment when Nikita Khrushchev decided to end the era of socialist realism. Its visual and ideological strength, however, conjoins the work to the finest works of that particular school in Slovakia. Symmetric volume is derived from an ancient temple with a massive columned portico with an architrave and a dentil strip. Tympanum is replaced with a heavy podium with a sculpture of a girl and a boy from Frano Gibala. Entrance portal is decorated with reliefs on the sides with scenes of joyful children's science research. From a completely different source of inspiration comes a wavy ceiling of the main hall, much like the ceiling of the Alvar Aalto's library in Viipuri (now Vyborg).

Literature:
KRIVOŠOVÁ, Janka – LUKÁČOVÁ, Elena: Premeny súčasnej architektúry Slovenska. Bratislava, Alfa 1990. 200 p., p. 47 – 48.
KUSÝ, Martin: Architektúra na Slovensku 1945 – 1975. Bratislava, Pallas 1976. 288 p.
DULLA, Matúš – MORAVČÍKOVÁ, Henrieta: Architektúra Slovenska v 20. storočí. Bratislava, Slovart 2002. 512 p., p. 179, 415.
DULLA, Matúš: Slovenská architekúra od Jurkoviča po dnešok. Bratislava, Perfekt 2007. 196 p.

Photo:
Matúš Dulla