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The Slavic people, from whom the Czechs and Slovaks originated, have inhabited the territory of 20th-century Czechoslovakia since the 5th century. The Tatar and Turkish invasions and occupations over previous countries did not kill the spirit of the Czech and Slovak people, who, divided for 11 centuries, were unified in the 20th century. Despite centuries of ethnic oppression, and Germanization and Hungarization by foreign rulers, the language, culture, and national identity of the Czechs and Slovaks have survived.
The new republic of Czechoslovakia arose from the ruins of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918 after World War I. The accord between the Czechs and the Slovaks was ratified in the Cleveland and the Pittsburgh declarations. The founders of the republic were its first president, Tomas Masaryk, and Garrigue Milan Rastislav Stefanik. The foundation of democratic principles gave the intellectuals of the young republic a new platform of liberal ideology. Influential in the cultural sphere was the Devetsil (the Nine Powers), an avant-garde group of artists, writers, architects, musicians, and actors, started in 1920 in Prague and in 1923 in Brno. Architect Josef Havlicek was one of the founding members, and the activist writer and graphic designer Karel Tiege was the leader of the group. They published a journal and organized lectures and exhibitions. The ARDEV (the Architects of Devetsil) members maintained contact with a number of representatives of the international avant-garde and invited them to visit and lecture in Czechoslovakia. Among them were Theo van Doesburg, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Jacobus Johannes Pieter Oud, Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier, Amédée Ozenfant, and Adolf Loos. The visits of Loos, a native of Brno, were particularly influential. The ARDEV members, concerned with the situation of social housing, produced studies of communal housing. These ideas came from the socialist ideals of Soviet Constructivism. In 1932 Karel Tiege, who was also an art critic and a theorist of architecture, summarized the housing studies in his book Nejmens i byt (The Smallest Flat).
At the turn of the 20th century, Czech, Moravian, and Slovak architects contributed to Art Nouveau. Czech Art Nouveau architecture was not based merely on an endeavor to dispense with historicism and to create original and independent principles of form and decorative elements of new style. A pupil of the Viennese modernist architect Otto Wagner, Prague architect Jan Kotera (1871–1923), preferred a functional layout and volume to counter the aesthetics of eclecticism. Simultaneously, Kotera emphasized truthfulness in architecture to counter a slavish imitation of historical motifs. He required a creative search for the new. Finally, Kotera’s design principles emphasized a building’s purpose and the clear expression of its structural elements. In 1910 Kotera was appointed professor of architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. His teaching was very influential on the new generation of architects in Bohemia (Czechia).
In the midst of Art Nouveau, the evolution of modern Czech architecture was characterized by a rather homogeneous design philosophy noted for its rationalism. Apart from the work of Kotera, this rationalism is seen in the designs of the rest of the pioneers of Czech modern architecture (Otakar Novotny, Josef Gocár, and Pavel Janák), Slovak modern architecture (Dusan Jurkovic, Michal Harminc, and Emil Bellus), and Moravian modern architecture (Arnost Wiesner, Jan Visek, Jiri Kroha, and Bohuslav Fuchs). Their familiarity with the progressive ideas of Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos, P.H.Berlage, Henry van de Velde, Tony Garnier, Auguste Perret, and Peter Behrens fueled the process. Kotera consistently enhanced serviceability and simplicity of form, using traditional building materials. His first significant Art Nouveau building, the Peterka House (1899– 1900) on Wenceslas Square in Prague, is a mixed-use row building. Other notable Art Noveau projects include the National House in Prostejov, the Chamber of Commerce Pavilion (1908) at the exhibition in Prague, and the Municipal Museum (1906–12) in Hradec Kralove.
Kotera’s significant residential architecture also includes the Laichter Apartment House (1908–09) and his own villa (1908–09), both in Prague, noteworthy for their careful fenestration and brick and stucco finishes. Similarly, in the Laichter Apartment House, the materials for the five-story structure are brick and stucco. Devoid of any embellishment, the asymmetrical composition of the building’s plan and corresponding facade features an offset cantilevered mass. The restraining simplicity and the lack of decor distinguish these designs.
The Mozarteum (Urbanek Department Store, 1912–13) in Prague is a symmetrical composition separated from its neighbors by a rectangular concrete frame topped by a triangular gable. The building’s dynamic facade is a precedent to Kotera’s Cubist period. His 1913 entry in the competition for the monument to Zizka on Vitkov Hill in Prague represents an articulate application of the Cubist language widely accepted among Czech modernists.
The search for a new architecture preoccupied many early 20th-century architects. Social and political changes were accompanied by a search for national identity. Architects returned to their ancestral origins for elements specific to the people and their region. Architect Dusan Jurkovic (1868–1947) relied on traditional peasant wooden architecture. He was interested in the indigenous architecture of villages and in the Arts and Crafts movement. After studies in Vienna, Jurkovic’s first built works were the mountain resort buildings located in Radhost and Rezek. In his Luhacovice Spa (1902– 03), the half-timber construction buildings for lodging, dining, and services were designed in the Art Nouveau style. During World War I, in 1916–18, Jurkovic designed for the military command in Krakow a series of soldier cemeteries, monuments, and grave markers located in southeastern Poland. Here, inspired by the indigenous architecture, he used carved wood. A singularly important work of Jurkovic’s is the Memorial to General Stefanik (1925–28) at Bradlo. Working conscientiously with the landscape, Jurkovic designed stations (1936–38) for the cable car to the Lomnicky s tit (peak) in the High Tatras. A leader in modern architecture in Slovakia, Jurkovic designed the four stations by combining the natural features of each site with the demands of technical operations and human habitation.
Architect Vladimir Karfik (1901–96) apprenticed with both Le Corbusier (1924–25) and Frank Lloyd Wright (1927–29). From 1930 to 1946, he was the chief architect of the Bata Company, where he developed “Zlin Architecture,” based on an efficient and economic construction system of a distinctive industrial image applied to a variety of building types. The Zlin Architecture construction system was used for a number of one- factory towns in Czechoslovakia and abroad. After World War II, Karfik was appointed to the new school of architecture at the Slovak Technical University in Bratislava, where he was one of the most influential professors.
The history of Czechoslovakia has been tumultuous. In 1938 Nazi Germany forced the European powers to agree to divide the country into a Czech protectorate and the Slovak Republic. After World War II, Czechoslovakia reunited, but soon the population faced another catastrophe with the communist political takeover in February 1948, when the Soviet government took over Czechoslovakia. Architects had to give up private offices to become employees in large state-controlled design institutes. Functionalism was condemned as an expression of a bourgeois cosmopolitanism.
Despite the oppressive conditions, extraordinary buildings were designed under the totalitarian regime. The 1969 International Union of Architects (UIA) Perret Award was given to the Television Tower (1963–71) on Jested Hill near Liberec, designed by Karel Hubacek. Hubacek started a groundbreaking architectural office in Liberec, Atelier SIAL, which now runs an architecture school. From this office came the project of the Department Store Maj (1973–75) in Prague, designed by Miros-lav Masak (b. 1932), Martin Rajnis (b. 1944), and Johnny Eisler (b. 1946). The husband-and-wife team of Jan Sramek (1924–78) and Alena Sramkova (b. 1929) designed the Main Train Station (1972–79) and the CKD Building (1976–83), both in Prague.
The carefully sited crematorium (1967) in Bratislava by Ferdinand Milucky broke out of socialist realism. For his work Milucky was awarded the prestigious Herder Prize in 1999. A prolific designer, Jan Bahna made a number of proposals for revitalization of Bratislava, among them the Department Store Dunaj (1990–92), designed with Fedor Minarik, Lubomir Zavodny, and Martin Fabry. The young Prague architects known as the Golden Eagles, the D.A. Studio, and the Brno group of the Municipal House have also been rediscovering the heritage of Czechoslovak functionalism of the interwar period. This can be seen in the Fitness Center (1991) in Ceske Budejovice by Jiri Stritecky and Martin Krupauer, the Riviera Swimming Pool (1986–92) in Brno by Petr Hrusa, and the Rowing Race Course (1989) at Racice by Zbysek Styblo, Tomas Kulik, and Jan Louda.
Czechoslovakia had contributed significantly to the international fairs, including the all-glass pavilion built for the 1937 Paris Exhibition by Jaromir Krejcar (1895–1949). At the 1958 World Expo in Brussels, the pavilion designed by Frantisek Cubr (1911–76), Josef Hruby (1906–88), and Zdenek Pokorny (1909–84) won the award for the most visited exhibition.
Several architects have contributed to 20th-century architecture in Czechoslovakia. These include the Villa Mueller (1928–30) in Prague by Adolf Loos, the Villa Tugendhat (1928–30) in Brno by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the synagogue (1928–31) in Zilina by Peter Behrens, the Villa Palicka (1932) in Prague by Mart Stam, and the National Netherlands Building (1992–95), known as the Fred and Ginger, in Prague by Frank Gehry and Vladimir Milunic.
PETER LIZON
Sennott R.S. Encyclopedia of twentieth century architecture, Vol.1 (A-F). Fitzroy Dearborn., 2004. |
