ABS Sales Centre / Market and Games Room with Bar ABS Zlín

Between 1993 and 1995, a market with gaming rooms and an ABS bar was built on the site of the former outpatient department and the later Čedok. The building of expressive forms standing on the edge of the factory area, between Tomáš Baťa Street and the former House of Culture, belongs to the buildings that perhaps most accurately represent the time of its creation, i.e. the early 1990s. The building is dominated by a number of smaller business units - kiosks, which demonstrate the need to offer business space to private entrepreneurs starting after the revolution. Compared to the temporary cells that filled the historic centre, the new building offered more stylish and comfortable facilities. However, just like the 26 cells on náměstí Míru, the market hall was supposed to be a temporary structure.

 

The author of the design was Jiří Gebrian (born in 1946), a graduate of the Brno Technical University, who between 1986 and 1993 held the position of Chief Architect at the Gottwaldov/Zlín district and who also had his own office AJG Zlín.

 

The organically shaped market building consists of two interconnected parts, one of which has a rectangular shape, three floors, and it partly stands on the foundations of the old Čedok building. The second object has an oval floor plan and is called “rondel” in the documentation. Both are connected by longitudinal roof skylights, which, according to the accompanying report, are meant to express "a typical phenomenon of the Zlín industrial environment." Also glazed canopies repeat on different parts of the dynamically designed façade. In addition to three staircases, the circular structure also has an access ramp. In the central part there is a common area from which one enters shops facing the inside of the building. In front of the eastern part of the oval building stands a massive gazebo with a pyramidal structure standing on round columns. There is also a gazebo on the northern side, which faces třída Tomáše Bati and carries the roof of the other entrance. The façade is clad with brick strips that are complemented by the bright paint of the window frames, doors, windows and railings and the structure of the skylights in red colour.

 

In the first of the buildings, a games room for people over 18 years of age together with a bar, a games room for people under 18 years of age, an office, toilets with washrooms, storage areas, and two kiosks were located on the ground floor. The rest of the space was divided into kiosks with an area of 8–12 m2. The two-storey oval structure is also divided into small shops; the shops on the first floor had no heating. Two arches forming the oval plan contain a small atrium in the middle, where also a small hexagonal drinking fountain is placed. There are a total of 44 kiosks in the complex. The project of another building, which stands a few metres east of the ABS complex, also dates from 1993. Its author is again Jiří Gebrian. A TAXI service, a bank branch, and two other stores found their headquarters here.

 

The windowless façades of the market were already in the design intended for large-format billboards with dimensions of 276x610 cm. Gradually, however, in addition to the demarcated areas, visual pollution covered the building, under which the architecture is lost including original elements, such as the ABS neon sign and the original information graphics, only left visible in a few places. Smaller shops still operate in the market today, though the first floor remains unused. The building and its surroundings are not well maintained. For the operator, the site no longer meets current spatial standards. The ABS complex reflects the needs of the 1990s, and a desire to stand out amid the surrounding development.

 

 

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