IMPRESS — build a hotel for the city Brno wanted foreigners to see

Hotel International makes little sense if you imagine post-war Brno as closed off from international ambition. It was built in 1958–1962 as the trade fair was again turning the city into a meeting point for international business and visitors. Its long horizontal mass, V-shaped entrance canopy and integrated artworks belong to the so-called Brussels style that followed Czechoslovakia's success at Expo 58. The job was hospitality, but also image-making. A foreign visitor arriving for the fair was supposed to encounter a Brno that looked contemporary, cultured and technically confident. Read the canopy and horizontal facade as part of that sales pitch rather than as neutral hotel decoration.