Breakfast in the grass, actually in the Slovenská sporitelňa I.
Client: Slovenská sporiteľňa, a.s., Bratislava
In October 2022, the employees of the Bratislava headquarters of Slovenská spořitelna received a new canteen enriched with extensive plant plantings with the theme “Breakfast in the Grass”. In December 2022, another strip of greenery was added, and two years later, in 2024, the volume of greenery more than doubled. We carefully monitor more than 500 plants during regular weekly maintenance.
In this first phase of greenery planting, Nela Filus from Slovenská spořitelna, architect Soňa Salnerová and designer Lucia Galušková from winwin architects entrusted us with our first major order in 2022 - at that time still called Kvítká v bytě - with great support and courage. When designing the greenery, we based our work on the assignment - breakfast in the grass. The idea was that after planting, the greenery would be supplemented with decorative dried plants - to maintain diversity and abundance.
Their spatial solution included a central flower bed at the imaginary front of the canteen, in which we combined plant species with different shapes, sizes and leaf colours to create a combination that complements each other. At the same time, these are plants that do not interfere with the seating area in such a way as to annoy diners by tickling their necks. The furniture set in the area where the growing box was located was completely hollow, so we could determine the height of the box ourselves and combine it with the wooden base on which it stands. With a depth of 60 cm, we ensured both a large consumption of substrate and a long lifespan for the individual plants in this planting. In practice, they will grow happily here for more than 10 years.
Another prominent flower bed is 8 m long, dividing the canteen space into two halves and forming a line that diners can follow when choosing a seat, but also a practical partition to provide privacy. Again, thanks to the supply of metal containers, under which we also made figures, we were able to freely decide what depth of container we would choose, in order to grow the planting for as long as possible. For the containers, we chose metal, which we prefer over plastic containers. It is 100% recyclable and water-resistant.
Smaller flower beds around the self-service kitchen, flower beds dividing the benches on both sides and large mature trees, which are elements of centers for larger groups of diners or free meetings in the space, loosely follow the larger plantings. Some compositions are composed with an emphasis on lower light conditions or, conversely, on the immediate source of light from the glass facade.
Photo credit: Magdaléna Hlatká, Tomáš Manina
We are very satisfied with the planting of plants in the SLSP canteen. They have specified the conceptual assignment, devised it and implemented it beyond expectations. They have a great feeling not only for the composition and selection of plants, but also for their spatial and aesthetic arrangement. The implementation took place quickly according to the agreement. The company also covers the subsequent maintenance of the plants, which still look great after almost two years. We definitely plan to approach the company for other projects.
