Elektrické podniky hl. m. Prahy

by martinaolbertova

The Functionalist masterpiece of Elektrické podniky (Electric Companies) from 1935 located in Prague’s quarter of Bubny hosted this year’s Designblok 2010, the annual week-long design show exhibiting the newest and best of the Czech design.

Especially the contrast of the young, hip and edgy contemporary design versus the classic cold materials and clean-cut shapes of the building itself created a nice paralell with the exhibit’s design conception.

However, I was more attracted by the raw and semi-ruined settings of the main cash desk downstairs and its surroundings, in which the workers of Electric Companies had been anxiously queuing up for their paychecks every month. On the contrary to the polished and colourful designs presented upstairs, these settings offered a different perspective. One somehow more real in its sadness, a bit mysterious, abandoned, long forgotten and left behind…

This is just a small taste of photos I shot in this building, more photos including the whole design show will come very soon!