I no longer shop at jested

The book describes the history of the construction site, its origin, opening, operation and contains a number of period photographs.

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PUBLIKATION
I no longer shop
at Jested

AUTHOR & PUBLISHER BC. JIŘÍ JIROUTEK

We’ll meet by the matches, go
for peanut brittle at the milk bar,
for coffee behind the beads, for fries
under the stairs, for boiled pork in the boiler room…

208pages of format 295×245 mm on the chalk paper.
The content is in Czech and English.

A place not just for shopping, but also for meeting people, wandering around and looking in shop windows – this is how I remember Ještěd department store. The building encased in yellow ceramic tiles among the grey surrounding buildings was one of the features of Liberec. It has been gone for ten years, and here is its story…

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Photos © Jiri Jiroutek

Jested Shopping Centre

Jested Shopping Centre has disappeared from Liberec to make room for commercial development. It happened against the will of the expert committee of conservationists and despite efforts to preserve it.

The building which has disappeared sometimes induced negative reactions, but it was part of the image of the city. One of the few Czech buildings designed in the spirit of structuralist architecture has disappeared. It arose after a complicated, long and difficult process. It disappeared quickly, without discussion of its possible preservation and use for a suitable purpose.

How easy it is to demolish. Sure, the world is evolving and changing. However, the development of the lower city centre could have been carried out while keeping this unique building. It was conceived as an open system that could be modified or added to, but no such consideration was put forward. Let us just hope that in the future we can defend ourselves against similar amputations of our cultural heritage. Otherwise, we may soon inhabit a country full of commercial buildings, but cut off from its history.

Jiří Suchomel
17.2.2010

Shopping Centre Jested

A place not just for shopping, but also for meeting people, wandering around and looking in shop windows — this is how I remember Jested department store.

The building encased in yellow ceramic tiles among the grey surrounding buildings was one of the features of Liberec. It has been gone for ten years, and here is its story…

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History

Architectural competition announced 1961, built between 1970 – 1979, first part opened on 1 December 1978, pavilions B and C on 16 July 1979.

From 1992 K-mart, then Tesco (from 1996), demolished in 2009.

ARCHITECTS – Karel Hubáček, Miroslav Masák

INTERIOR – Jiri Suchomel, Mirko Baum, Václav Králíček, Aleš Beneda , Vladimír Hora,
Jiří Špikla, Lidmila Švarcová, Michal Brix – trafika (krabička sirek)

CONSTRUCTION – Oto Nykodým, Jiří Bílek, Jiří Prskavec, Jan Pilař, Václav Bůžek,
Josef Patrman

STRUCTURAL STABILITY – Václav Voda, Jan Suchánek, Marie Suchánková, Zdeněk Moc

HEATING – František Altman, Ivana Kulštejnová

AIR-CONDITIONING – Otto Valouch

HEALTH TECHNOLOGY – Zdeněk Šisler, Zdena Procházková

ELEKTRCAL INSTALLATIONS – Bohuslav Zrůst, František Lis, Jaroslava Bílková

MEASUREMENT AND REGULATION – Průmstav Praha – Karel Ressner

STEEL STRUCTURES + WORKSHOP SKETCHES – VŽKG 06 – Ing. Janecký

BUDGET – František Schneller, Jaroslav Kaucký, Ladislav Ježek, Irena Berková

TECHNICAL SUPERVISION – Václav Smola, Bohuslav Port, Miroslav Ryzec, Zbyněk Novák