Ruzinov Shopping Centre was the first building in Slovakia showing signs of the postmodernism in its entrance hall with pseudo-historical portals. The shopping mall is constructed of precast concrete system which predetermined the basic shape with its spacing pattern as well as the facade (U-shaped concrete members along the side facades are part of the structural system). The building has been designed for a couple of retailers which shared the spaces. Most interesting, however, is the entrance hall. In collaboration with a pottery artist R. Langer, the architect J. Bahna has managed here to achieve pseudo-historical entrance portals by means of post-modern language. He combined them with a metal roof structure and a set of escalators. With its typically urban attributes, the hall is quite prominent amidst the humdrum of the modernist blocks of flats and it successfully introduced the architectural postmodernism in Slovakia.

Literature:
DULLA, Matúš: Prvá lastovička nových prístupov. Obchodný dom Ružinov v Bratislave. Projekt 27, 1985, 3, p. 14 – 16.
FERUS, Viktor: Pocta portálu. Výtvarný život 1985, 6, p. 11 – 13.
DULLA, Matúš: Architekt Ján M. Bahna. Bratislava, Meritum 1995. 32 p.
DULLA, Matúš – MORAVČÍKOVÁ, Henrieta: Architektúra Slovenska v 20. storočí. Bratislava, Slovart 2002. 512 p., p. 240 – 241, 255, 264, 446.

Photo:
Rajmund Müller