Scientific Study

When the Party Builds: The Origins and Forms of the Secretariat Buildings of the Communist Party of Slovakia during the Normalisation Period

This paper examines the headquarters buildings of the Communist Party of Slovakia as a distinct type of administrative structure developed during the late socialist period, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s. Drawing on archival sources and fieldwork, the paper situates the Party secretariat buildings within the broader system of centrally planned investment construction and examines the role of the Communist Party as investor. Through analysis of projects both realised and unrealised, the study explores the evolution of this building type and argues that its political character derived primarily from its institutional-pragmatic function, rather than its symbolic-representational one.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.31577/archandurb.2026.60.1-2.6

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