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The Vltava River (Moldau), a natural axis of the settlement basin surrounded by hills, forms a favorable area for habitation. The city of Praha (Prague) was established in the 8th and 9th centuries, when the center of the then-Slavonic state was transferred to Bohemia (Czech lands). The old town of Prague, with its narrow, winding streets along with the churches, monasteries, and palaces, was built in the Romanesque period. The new town, built as a medieval city, was established in 1348 by a royal edict issued by Charles IV. At that time, the city, adorned by more than 100 churches and chapels with a population of 50,000, was larger than London or Paris. Today, Prague holds more than 1.5 million people. The epithet given to Prague—the Hundred Spire City—is more than deserved, and this ancient character continues to define Prague’s 20th-century urban setting.
In the middle of the 19th century, architecture became an instrument to obtain a political autonomy from the Habsburg monarchy. One building in particular, the National Theater, had been a political and cultural symbol for the rise and culmination of the Czech national revival. Built from the national collection, the original theater, designed by Josef Zitek, was located on the prominent Vltava riverfront and was completed in 1881. Three months later, however, it burned down, only to prompt another collection to rebuild the burned building. The theater, rebuilt by Josef Schulz, an associate of Zitek’s, was constructed in 1883. Thus, the patriotic Czechs have been very emotional regarding their National Theater and any changes with it or its surroundings.
Ever since 1918, when Prague became the capital of the new republic of Czecho- Slovakia, proposals were made to modernize and enlarge the theater. Shortly after World War II, it was determined that both the exterior and the interior of the National Theater needed reconstruction and that the operation and running of the theater needed more space for expansion. Two national design competitions were held, and a number of design studies were made on the subject of expansion. The design submitted by the Brno architect Bohuslav Fuchs was selected as the winner. However, reservations about the decision-making process slowed down the design development of the project. After the death of Fuchs in 1972, the team resigned from the project commission. The necessity of the reconstruction overshadowed the expansion project. After seven years of work, in 1983 the reconstruction and addition to the National Theater in Prague was completed in time to mark the centennial. Although the result of the arduous effort is there, the polemic is continuing. The relationship between old and new remains a topic of debate among citizens of the city and the nation alike.
At the turn of the 20th century, historicism was countered by Jan Kotera (1871–1923), Pavel Janak (1882–1956), Josef Gocar (1880–1945), and Otakar Novotny (1880–1959). In the midst of Art Nouveau, these architects were characterized by rationalism. The first important Art Nouveau design by Kotera, the Peterka House (1899–1900) on Wenceslas Square, clearly expresses the different building uses on the street elevation. The Mozarteum (Urbanek Department Store, 1912–13) is a symmetrical composition with the ground-floor commercial storefront and second-floor ribbon-window fenestration. The upper residential consists of three progressively upward-recessed bays of brick in-fill framed into stepped concrete verticals. This dynamic facade predates Kotera’s later Cubist period.
The Jan Stenc Publishing House (1909–11) by Novotny, finished in patterned bricks of different colors, features a functional layout. Daylight pours into the printing press halls through the large expanses of glass. Janak was at first the ideological leader who later designed fine Functionalist buildings, relying on Cubist forms. The stately Reuinone Adriatica Insurance Company building (1923–25) of a late Cubism, referred to as Rondo Cubism, has a dominating presence on the busy Narodni Trida (the Nation’s Avenue). However, the key buildings of Prague’s Cubism are Grocar’s House at the Black Madonna (1912) and the Josef Chochol’s (1880–1956) tenement and single-family houses (1912–14) below Vysehrad Hill. Side chairs, armchairs, tables, desks, dressers, and sofas were designed in Cubist language by Chochol, Gocar, Janak, and Novotny as well as Vlastimil Hofman (1884–1964), Jiri Kroha (1893–1974), Antonin Prochazka (1882–1945), and Rudolf Stockar (1886–1950).
The 1918 foundation of the democratic Republic of Czechoslovakia gave the intelligentsia a new platform of liberal ideology. In 1920 an avant-garde group of artists, writers, architects, musicians, and actors started a society called the “Devetsil” (the Nine Powers). The group published a journal and organized lectures and exhibitions. The ARDEV (the Architects of Devetsil) members produced studies of different housing types. The “Purist Four”—Jaroslav Fragner (1898–1967), Karel Honzik (1900–66), Evzen Linhart (1900–47), and Vit Obrtel (1901–88) with Josef Havlicek—were instrumental in founding the ARDEV. In 1932 the art critic and theorist Karel Tiege, the leader of Devetsil, published housing studies in the book Nejmensi byt (The Smallest Flat). The ideas of communal housing came from the socialist ideas of Soviet Constructivism. Novotny, on the other hand, was active in the “SVU (Society of the Fine Artists) Manes.” The building for this important institution, which housed a gallery, meeting rooms, and a restaurant, was designed in 1927–30 by Novotny. Straddling the Vltava River and executed in a clear modern idiom, the Manes has held shows of trendsetting artists and architects of Prague ever since.
To demonstrate new ideas of modern dwelling, Prague architects organized a housing exhibition with goals similar to the Weissenhofsiedlung in Stuttgart (1927–29) or the New House in Brno (1928). Master planned by Janak, the Baba Housing (1928–32) single-family homes were designed by Gocar, Janak, Jan E. Koula, and Linhart. The family living was extended outdoors by means of large window openings, balconies, verandas, and roof terraces. A new type of office building was defined in the Pensions Institute (1929–34), designed by Havlicek and Honzik. The architects employed here the quintessential elements of functionalist architecture: a uniform structural modular system, expressed vertical circulation, ribbon windows bringing maximum daylight into a free- plan interior, and a roof terrace.
Following the 1938 Munich Treaty, then the devastation of World War II, the Communist takeover in 1948, the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Red Army in 1968, and the political and social changes brought about by these events, Prague suffered many setbacks. During the 41 years of the Communist Party totalitarian regime, architects were expected to design in a government-dictated style called socialist realism. Functionalism was condemned as an expression of bourgeois cosmopolitanism. The November 1989 “Velvet Revolution” marked the fall of the Communist government, and free Prague emerged again.
In the last quarter of the 20th century, despite the totalitarian regime’s restriction of free expression and the imposition of Moscow-style aesthetics, several new buildings stand out as important contributions to 20th-century Prague architecture. These include the Department Store “Maj” (1973–75) on the Narodni Trida by Miroslav Masak (1932– ), Martin Rajnis (1944–), and Johnny Eisler (1946–); the Tennis Stadium (1986–89) on Stvanice Island by Jana Novotna (1946–) and Josef Kales (1934–); and the Retirement Home (1983–89) at Chodov by Jan Lynek (1943–), Vladimir Milunic (1941–), Tomas Kulik (1954–), and Jan Louda (1949–). The husband-and-wife team of Jan Sramek (1924–78) and Alena Sramkova (1929–) designed a key transportation hub of the Main Train Station (1972–79) and the CKD Building (1976–83) on the Narodni Trida. The Vltava riverfront has been complemented by the National Netherlands Building (1992– 95), known as the “Fred and Ginger,” by Frank Gehry with Vladimir Milunic.
PETER LIZON
Sennott R.S. Encyclopedia of twentieth century architecture, Vol.3 (P-Z). Fitzroy Dearborn., 2005. |
