Jurkovič heating plant is also home to DOT Contemporary Art Gallery, where numerous cultural events take place. At the heart of the new place for culture is also the Werk Restaurant with cosmopolitan cuisine and open space for all. Adapting to the rapidly changing moods of the day, the variable space offers a different experience during the day and a different evening, when Werk transforms into a lounge area with dim light and the atmosphere of a never-sleeping Manhattan. The restaurant has quickly become the hottest venue in Bratislava.
Jurkovič heating plant
The plant’s construction began in 1941 and was completed in 1944. Experts attribute its design to architect Dušan Jurkovič, even though there is no signature on surviving plans for the building. Jurkovič designed several buildings for the Slovenská Energetika company, and elements of the plant’s design are very typical of his work. It stopped operations at the end of the last century, and in 2008 was declared a national cultural monument. Its reconstruction lasted four years.
Historical industrial building from 1944
Meeting planners attending events in either of the two unique conference rooms in the historic Jurkovič heating plant in Bratislava will find themselves immersed in a modern world. The two rooms are built inside a huge concrete storage bin and have glass floors offering a view that goes metres down to its lit bottom.
The rooms’ design is just one example of the concept behind the recent reconstruction of the iconic building. The former Jurkovič heating plant – built in 1944 and named after its original designer, prominent Slovak architect Dušan Jurkovič – is part of the massive €420 million Sky Park development in the heart of the capital on the banks of the Danube.
Surrounded by residential towers designed by the award-winning British architectural studio Zaha Hadid Architects, it is one of few historical industrial buildings still standing in the capital that has been repurposed.
A co-working space
“We see that such a space has been missing in Bratislava for a long period of time and a former heating plant is an ideal place for this,” said Juraj Nevolník, executive director of Penta Real Estate for Slovakia. “Once it was the energy centre of Bratislava, and today it has the symbolic opportunity of becoming its creative and development centre.”
The heating plant provides co-working space for people and companies from the creative industry, architects, startups and smaller IT companies while it is also open to the general public as well. In total, the building will provide 5,000 square meters of floor space, of which co-working offices will take up 3,500 square meters.
