Ekoiuventa, formerly known as the Youth House, Technical Station Mičurin, and Young Naturalists' Station, was Slovakia’s first comprehensive centre of natural science clubs for socialist pioneer youth – the country’s first enclosed facility catering to the needs of extracurricular youth education. In addition to the main building, facilities were progressively constructed for a wide range of activities – young technicians' building, young tourists' building, classroom and accommodation facility, amphitheatre, swimming pool, and greenhouses. Other important areas of the complex were the playground, experimental fields, apiaries, and poultry breeding and ornithological facilities.    

The hub of the complex was the Youth House with its façade overlooking Machnáč Hill and Búdková Street. Designed by the architect M. Chorvát, it is one of the most highly regarded, typical, and representative buildings of socialist realism architecture of the 1950s in Slovakia.  

Its façade is aestheticised by four stone reliefs created by the sculptor J. Kulich, set in pairs beside the entrance. The building’s principal artistic accent is Slovak Youth Builds by the sculptor Fraňo Gibala, a work mounted on the roof to welcome arriving visitors.  

Square stone reliefs form part of the façade's parterre, their light sandstone contrasting with the façade's red stone cladding. The slabs blend with the façade, only a prismatic cornice protruding below forms a pedestal for figures whose mission was to proclaim a happy new future for Slovakia’s youth. The individual scenes combine to form a unified artistic and compositional rendering. 

This scene depicts the planting of a sapling by Michurin pioneers. The young tree and its supporting stick form the central compositional axis. Standing in the background to the right, a girl wearing a skirt, shirt, jacket, and pioneer scarf is watching the planting process. A boy, represented in profile, is kneeling in front of her digging a hole with a spade. Opposite them, a kneeling boy is bent over the hole clearing the earth. On the far left, shown from behind with her head turned in profile, a girl is holding a watering can behind her back as she stands looking down at the hole.

ZZ

Research status as of 15 November 2023.