ŠMERAL ART FACTORY has transformed a long-unused industrial hall on the banks of the Svitava River into one of Brno’s new cultural venues. Through exhibitions and cultural programming, it extends cultural activity across the wider Šmeral industrial complex. The project, executed by architecture firm KOGAA, preserves the site’s industrial identity while introducing a new cultural layer that naturally reconnects the complex with both the river and the life of the city.
The gallery experience begins well before visitors enter the building. Arriving on foot or by bicycle along the Svitava, visitors pass the Šmeral Graffiti Wall — the first legal graffiti wall in Brno — before entering the factory complex and discovering the calm white exhibition space hidden within the industrial complex.
The journey itself becomes part of the architectural concept. The contrast between the raw industrial environment and the cultivated interior creates an interaction between street art, industrial heritage, and contemporary art. The exhibition space gradually reveals itself to visitors, and the passage through the complex becomes an integral part of this spatial sequence.
The gallery’s reconstruction preserves the hall’s steel structure and industrial character while adapting it for contemporary cultural use. The roof has been replaced with new corrugated metal cladding that respects the original material expression. Enlarged roof lights bring daylight deep into the interior while reducing structural loads on the existing steel frame. The original light fittings have been refurbished and supplemented with LED technology, enabling flexible exhibition layouts.
The interior has been opened up and maximally cleared to create continuous white exhibition walls. The gallery facilities are concealed within an inverted white box positioned at the centre of the floor plan. Externally, it appears as a white volume incorporating exhibition surfaces together with the reception and bar. Inside, it contains an entirely black visitor facilities area.
New elements, such as the reception desk evoking the structure of corrugated metal sheeting, were manufactured directly within the Šmeral industrial complex. The site’s industrial heritage is further expressed through a functioning stamping press displayed outside the gallery, creating a dialogue with contemporary artworks. Its characteristic factory green, once typical of the hall’s structures, returns in a muted form in details of the roof, window reveals, and chimneys.
The vibrant street art wall facing the river forms a visual dialogue with the gallery’s white façades and exhibition walls, linking outdoor and indoor forms of artistic expression. The adjacent public space of the gallery is prepared for exhibitions, performances, and other cultural events. A new entrance opens the complex towards the riverside cycling path, allowing pedestrians and cyclists to rediscover a place that remained inaccessible to the public for decades.
ŠMERAL ART FACTORY builds upon KOGAA’s long-term research initiative, Making Use, which understands existing buildings not as limitations but as opportunities. Architecture that works with what already exists can reveal new cultural, social, and spatial values while preserving the unique identity of a place.
Photography by Alex Shoots Buildings.
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