Perforated brick and a spiral stair revive a Czech brewery as civic hub

Architecture firm Acronym Collective Studio has transformed a former brewery near Brno into Kulturní Centrum Pivovar, a community centre crowned by a curved, perforated brick facade on its prominent corner site.

The building stands in the town of Velká Bíteš in the Czech Republic. Its programme packs a library, information centre, family centre, multi-purpose community hall and creative workshop spaces into one structure.

The original building operated as a brewery until 1942. It then served as storage before being converted into apartments in the 1960s. The latest conversion aimed to restore the civic presence the structure had lost.

What did the conversion set out to fix?

Architect Pavel Gebauer said successive interventions had eroded the building's character. "Through its scale and location, the building forms a significant part of the urban fabric," Gebauer told Dezeen. "However, successive alterations had gradually weakened both its original character and its relationship with the surrounding public space."

He added: "Despite the diversity of the individual programmes, the aim was for the building to be perceived as one interconnected public house rather than a collection of separate institutions."

The practice's key move was urban rather than cosmetic. "The most significant urban gesture is the relocation of the main entrance to the rounded corner facing the square," Gebauer said. "This places the entrance at the building's most prominent point and fundamentally changes the way the building engages with the city."

How is the building organised?

The corner entrance leads into the information centre and a new stairwell. A spiral stair in exposed concrete sits in the rounded corner, overlooked by a full-height internal window that pulls daylight into the first-floor library.

• Lower level: the brewery's former vaulted cellars now contain an exhibition space and creative workshop areas, lit by arched windows opening onto a small rear courtyard.
• Top floor: the multi-purpose community hall sits beneath a gabled roof of timber slats, with grey curtains to enclose the space when needed.

The hall required structural surgery. "The original layout of the former residential building was characterised by low ceiling heights, which were inadequate for the significance of the newly designed multi-purpose hall," Gebauer told Dezeen. "By removing the existing floor structure and opening the space up into the roof structure, the hall gains an appropriate scale, spatial generosity and a more representative character."

What does the facade and interior look like?

A plinth of grey brickwork defines the ground floor, contrasting with the white brick above. Perforated sections and bands of stretcher bond brick around openings animate the street-facing surfaces.

Inside, Gebauer describes a "deliberately restrained" palette of exposed concrete, masonry and pale timber, selected to keep the spaces hardwearing and easy to maintain — a practical brief for a building built for daily public use.

The project joins a wider wave of adaptive reuse in the Czech Republic. Architecture studio KOGAA recently transformed a former industrial hall into an art gallery, painting the original shed-like metalwork in a shade of mint green.

Photography is by Alex Shoots Buildings.

With Kulturní Centrum Pivovar, Acronym Collective Studio shows how a mid-sized Czech town can reclaim a dormant industrial landmark as everyday civic infrastructure — corner entrance first.