Forty years ago, on March 27, 1985, at 4.30 a.m., the first morning news was broadcast from the upside-down pyramid building that’s home to Slovak Radio. The building’s construction lasted 16 years and its original shape and technical solution places it among the architectural landmarks of Bratislava. Before moving to the current iconic building, the centre of radio broadcasting was on Zochova Street in Bratislava, where the headquarters of radio broadcasting had been since August 1944, together with another radio building on Leninovo/Jakubovo Square.
Progress in technologies demanded a modern solution. The former "New Radio Centre" in the shape of an inverted pyramid became not only an architectural gem, but also a technologically advanced centre of Slovak radio broadcasting.
The concert studio within the Slovak Radio building is one of the most important music venues in Slovakia and is known for its exceptional acoustics. It houses the largest organ in Slovakia and one of the largest in the V4 countries, with 6 373 pipes and 83 registers.
The studio is architecturally designed to achieve excellent acoustic performance - its lobby is built on the principle of a "house within a house", with the entire structure sprung with steel springs to absorb unwanted noise and vibration. Thanks to these technical solutions, it is considered one of the best recording and concert studios in Europe.
The building was declared a national cultural monument and in 2001 was named Building of the Century in Slovakia. It is a unique work of architects Štefan Svetko, Štefan Ďurkovič and Barnabáš Kissling, and the interiors were designed by Marta Skočková.
Source: Slovenský rozhlas
