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FROM EAST TO WEST: RELATIONS, COLLISIONS, AND DIVERGENCE OF CZECH AND JAPANESE CULTURE
Vaculík, David ; Čapková, Helena (referee) ; Mitášová, Monika (advisor)
The diploma thesis follows up the pre-diploma research dealing with the investigation of selected literature on Japanese traditional and modern architecture and gardens, archival research of extant 20th century buildings in Czech republic influenced by Czech-Japanese relations and the contemporary perception of Japan in the eyes of the Czech professional and uninitiated audience. It also includes a selective glossary of Japanese words and terms, containing study translations from English of selected architectural literature related to the topic. The output took the form of a Discovery Book with a short glossary, pictorial data and an anthology of translated texts. The thesis follows this preliminary "introductory research" with two main parts. The first part (A) explores concepts of space-making and spatial elements deeply rooted in Japanese traditional buildings as they were rediscovered and rethought, particularly by 20th century Japanese architects – who continued to use and revive these concepts in their own work. The text traces their understanding of Japanese traditional architecture. Then, using the example of three Japanese traditional spatial "icons", four works by 20th century Japanese architects, and three works by Czech architects in different phases of the 20th century, the thesis probes the relationship between these two architectural cultures in a European context. The second part (B) consists of texts on the architectural designing of model, utopian housing. The whole design follows a narrative – a scenario that shapes a temporal and spatial sequence that is not in line with the classical perception of time and space but spirals upwards. The next subsection interprets this story into spatio-temporal gradients and elements. Parts C and D contain conclusions and literature used. Model buildings are proposed on a range of scales: the smallest dwelling (a capsule), minimal dwelling, community dwelling, house, villa, city, and a coffin. The composition of the different scenarios and structures respects the movement along a spiral, where we can also observe the cyclical nature of life itself, which ends with the last terminal phase that escapes the gradient of scales – the coffin. These individual proposals are inspired by the studied phenomena and elements, texts and buildings of Japanese and European architecture with their interrelationships. The aim of this thesis is first to study the spatial, temporal, but also light and colour possibilities of Japanese traditional and modern architecture in the context of European, especially Czech, ones. Another aim is to propose a model-based, utopian housing project with a gradient layering of spaces, structures, materials, views and lighting based on various game strategies as well as the maxims of “Form follows fiction”.
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FROM EAST TO WEST: RELATIONS, COLLISIONS, AND DIVERGENCE OF CZECH AND JAPANESE CULTURE
Vaculík, David ; Čapková, Helena (referee) ; Mitášová, Monika (advisor)
The diploma thesis follows up the pre-diploma research dealing with the investigation of selected literature on Japanese traditional and modern architecture and gardens, archival research of extant 20th century buildings in Czech republic influenced by Czech-Japanese relations and the contemporary perception of Japan in the eyes of the Czech professional and uninitiated audience. It also includes a selective glossary of Japanese words and terms, containing study translations from English of selected architectural literature related to the topic. The output took the form of a Discovery Book with a short glossary, pictorial data and an anthology of translated texts. The thesis follows this preliminary "introductory research" with two main parts. The first part (A) explores concepts of space-making and spatial elements deeply rooted in Japanese traditional buildings as they were rediscovered and rethought, particularly by 20th century Japanese architects – who continued to use and revive these concepts in their own work. The text traces their understanding of Japanese traditional architecture. Then, using the example of three Japanese traditional spatial "icons", four works by 20th century Japanese architects, and three works by Czech architects in different phases of the 20th century, the thesis probes the relationship between these two architectural cultures in a European context. The second part (B) consists of texts on the architectural designing of model, utopian housing. The whole design follows a narrative – a scenario that shapes a temporal and spatial sequence that is not in line with the classical perception of time and space but spirals upwards. The next subsection interprets this story into spatio-temporal gradients and elements. Parts C and D contain conclusions and literature used. Model buildings are proposed on a range of scales: the smallest dwelling (a capsule), minimal dwelling, community dwelling, house, villa, city, and a coffin. The composition of the different scenarios and structures respects the movement along a spiral, where we can also observe the cyclical nature of life itself, which ends with the last terminal phase that escapes the gradient of scales – the coffin. These individual proposals are inspired by the studied phenomena and elements, texts and buildings of Japanese and European architecture with their interrelationships. The aim of this thesis is first to study the spatial, temporal, but also light and colour possibilities of Japanese traditional and modern architecture in the context of European, especially Czech, ones. Another aim is to propose a model-based, utopian housing project with a gradient layering of spaces, structures, materials, views and lighting based on various game strategies as well as the maxims of “Form follows fiction”.
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East Asian Calligraphy and Czech Art after 1948
Polláková, Petra ; Rakušanová, Marie (advisor) ; Konečný, Lubomír (referee) ; Čapková, Helena (referee)
My dissertation thesis seeks to explore some specific social aspects of the dialogue between traditional Chinese art and thinking and Czech art scene after the February1948, when the Communist party took power in former Czechoslovakia. I am mainly interested in the problematic of inspiration from traditional Chinese calligraphy and Daoist philosophy on Czech painting, visual poetry and literature in the 1950s and 1960s. I will argue that the appropriation of selected Chinese philosophical and artistic themes helped Czech artists, working under the communist repression, to express their innermost human emotions in relation to home, culture, freedom, and one's artistic and human destiny. The communist regime meant to many artists the end of their official artistic career. Life in seclusion outside the main political and social streams became for some of them an opportunity to display pent-up feelings of affinity with the life stories of the ancient Daoist thinkers. In this context, focus is primarily placed on an analysis of several distinctive visual and literary works by Czech leading artists of the period, especially on the selected works by the visual artists Emil Filla, Jiří Kolář, Vladimír Boudník, Jan Kotík or Zdeněk Sklenář and the novelist Bohumil Hrabal (1914 - 1997) and his world famous...
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Nippon re-discovered. The image of Japan in central European modernism 1920-1940
Čapková, Helena ; Švácha, Rostislav (referee) ; Lahoda, Vojtěch (advisor)
Japanese influence on Europe was particularly strong in the period of japonism, which is widely pinned down and limited to the second half of 19th century. However, this Japanese vogue transformed into a sophisticated knowledge and admiration for Japanese art, philosophy and everyday life by the interwar period. This transformation happened within a framework of international modernity and is a subject of this text. What is the Japanese element in modernism that alludes its latent japaneseness? I argue that it is a symptom of Japanese aesthetics that deeply rooted into common consciousness by the time between the wars. The geographic focus of this paper is on Central Europe and Japan. Japanese art scene has been an active participant of international art debates since the beginning of 20th century. This dynamic situation in Japan played a crucial role in seeking the history and unique face of modernism. Many prominent artists took part in this process including the ones for Central Europe. Therefore, few case studies will be included, such as on Johannes Itten, Bedřich Feuerstein and Bruno Taut.
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