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Czech Urbanism 1938 - 1948: Regionalism and Work of the Country Research and Planning Institute in Brno
Pražanová, Eva ; Švácha, Rostislav (advisor) ; Halík, Pavel (referee) ; Kratochvíl, Petr (referee)
The given dissertation presents the work of the Country Research and Planning Institute in Brno and depicts regional tendencies in the Czech urbanism in the 40's. In her paper the author focuses on the period between 1938 and 1948 that marks the active existence of Brno's institute which was the most progressive institution within the field of regional planning in that era and whose activities have never been described sufficiently. The main initiators and authors of the institute concept were Bohuslav Fuchs, Jindřich Kumpošt and Josef Mrkos; later a significant figure of the Czech regional planning - Emanuel Hruška joined them. The dissertation defines the urbanistic works of the specified period as continuance of the previous development forcibly interrupted in 1948. In order to understand the motives for the regional planning, this paper outlines the principal idealistic concepts of the planners: criticism of liberalism, holism, technocracy, and redefinition of so called scientific stage of functionalism related to the problem of mental functions in the architecture. After introducing the regional planning in the world and Czechoslovakia at the beginning of the 40's the history, concept and functioning of Brno's institute is presented, including analyses of its main projects. The following...
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Exhibition versus "exhibitioning". The Czechoslovak pavilions at Expo 1967 in Montreal and Expo 1970 in Osaka
Nekvindová, Terezie ; Klimešová, Marie (advisor) ; Šetlík, Jiří (referee) ; Švácha, Rostislav (referee)
The paper focuses on the Czechoslovak pavilions at the 1967 and 1970 World Expos. Both events took place in the period around 1968, when, however briefly, the Czechoslovak visual arts partially overlapped with the state's cultural policy. The pavilions (especially at Expo 70) also reflected the socio- political contexts of the year 1968.. In Czechoslovakia towards the end of the 1960s, the purpose of "exhibitioning" - i.e., the state-sponsored exhibition trade - was to communicate with the public and to (re)present the country abroad. Its main goal was to promote and spread the ruling ideology. On the other hand, the Czechoslovak visual arts scene was beginning to consciously work with the medium of the exhibition as a comprehensively composed unit, either through innovative exhibition design and installation or through installation art. While the exhibition trade reached its high point in the 1960s and began to disintegrate into rigid mannerism towards the end of the decade, real experiments with the format of the art exhibition were just beginning. This study focuses on the question of how these two fields (art and the exhibition trade) approached the medium of the exhibition in the 1960s. I study the Czechoslovak pavilions as a cultural artifact in which aesthetic, social, political, and economic forces...
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Baroque Architectural Space in the Conception of Czech Criticism in the 20th Century
Koryntová, Eliška ; Macek, Petr (advisor) ; Švácha, Rostislav (referee)
(in English) This thesis is a summary of opinions coming from 20th century Czech art historians which wrote about baroque architectural space. Based on reading texts from them I have chosen three cardinal themes characterizing the research of baroque architectural space: tendencies to emancipate architectural space, emphasis on the time based experience of architectural space and interest in luminary qualities of architectural space. In the chapter about time based experience of architectural space I am dealing with the illusion of movement that creates baroque architectural space, with the parallel between baroque architecture and baroque musical compositions and with the principles of designing the so called "moving space" by using illusionary splines. I find a tendency to describe baroque architectural space in a poetical way by Czech art historians due to the process of perceiving architecture happening through the interaction of the human body arrangement. I am focused on philosophy of Martin Heidegger and Hans Georg Gadamer where the support of metaphoric description of baroque architectural space can be found. In the final part of this thesis I write about the symbolic qualities of sacral baroque architectural space. I consider the spatial relationship "above" and "down" as an interpretation...
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Café Architecture - The Café Space in Studies and Realizations of Architecture in first half of the 20 th Century
Bendová, Eva ; Švácha, Rostislav (advisor) ; Wittlich, Petr (referee) ; Prahl, Roman (referee)
The dissertation under the title "Café Architecture. The Café Space in Studies and Realizations of Architecture in first half of the 20th Century" deals with the question of the meaning and form of the café institution in modern times, from 18th century, especially in the years 1898-1939. The emphasis is placed on the Prague environment, but we cannot seal ourselves off from the inter-disciplinary or geographic overlap in the case of significant examples outside of the Prague environment, especially in European capitals (Vienna, Berlin, Paris). The café space as an architectural structure and phenomenon related to the modern urban society must be viewed from many different angles. To understand what is happening in the cafe and to realize the importance of social events, we reconstruct historical fact: we observe the topography of cafés, its visitors and its founders, but especially specific experience moments from cafes. This work attempts to capture what phenomena of modernity is mainly related to the café, how it is characterized by the artists and architects themselves and how they in turn determine café space. I divide the work into two basic sections therefore. Cultural-historical study summarizes thinking about the institution of café and watches its specifics as a typical space of modernity that...
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Auguste Perret and Czech Architecture
Veselá, Radmila ; Švácha, Rostislav (advisor) ; Sedlák, Jan (referee) ; Halík, Pavel (referee)
Auguste Perret made his mark in history as the first architect to make use of ferroconcrete as an expressive material. The Rue Franklin apartments, the Garage Ponthieu, and the Church in Le Raincy are all milestones in the development of world architecture. In my dissertation, I have outlined the situation in the French architectural criticism in the first decades of the 20th century in order to provide background to Perret's career, which is chronologically treated in another part of the dissertation and completed with an overview of Perret's important buildings. I also wanted to demonstrate the interconnection of his projects with his theoretical thinking. I have referred to the sources of Perret's doctrine and presented the themes that this architect consistently developed throughout his creative life. In my research I took advantage of a rich collection of preserved archives of Perret's office, and both historical and contemporary literature. In another part of the dissertation, I attempted to find answers to the questions of Perret's reception in the Czech context and his contacts with Czech architects. I was also interested in Perret's relation to Czech architecture and in the last section I examined whether we can find works in Czech architecture that directly reflect Perret's influence. We...
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German social demokratic architecture in municipal housing in Ústí nad Labem, 1918-1938
Prouza, Pavel ; Švácha, Rostislav (advisor) ; Pavlíček, Tomáš (referee) ; Biegel, Richard (referee)
5 German social democratic architecture in municipal housing in Ústí nad Labem, 1918-1938 Ing. arch. Pavel Prouza Supervisor: Prof. PhDr. Rostislav Švácha, CSc. Abstract The dissertation addresses the issue of architecture in municipal housing built between the two wars in the town of Ústí nad Labem. From mid-nineteenth century the North Bohemian industrial agglomeration, populated mostly by Germans, experienced unprecedented urban and demographic growth. Thus, between 1919 and 1938, the municipality developed a comprehensive project of approximately one hundred buildings. The thesis identifies relations and balanced proportions between a formal analysis of the individual stages of development and a study of their broader historical context. The method of art-historical analysis is applied, whereby the projects are chronologically classified and their urban, typological and chronological aspects are assayed and assessed. The thesis also focuses on the identity of the author, the architect of German origin Franz J. Arnold. The architecture of the Ústí municipal housing complex was designed as a concretization of the social democratic political programme and of the state housing policy, it carries therefore a contents of political significance. The analysis was performed based on archival studies and field...
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Vladimír Fultner in the labyrinth of Czech architecture up to 1914
Pencák, Marcel ; Švácha, Rostislav (advisor) ; Wittlich, Petr (referee) ; Vybíral, Jindřich (referee)
The paper focuses on the monographic encompassing of the life and work of Vladimír Fultner (1887-1918), whose name is often neglected or forgotten in Czech architectural history. However, careful research reveals that his creation was founded upon extraordinary talent. These works achieved refined artistic sophistication and indisputable originality on the backdrop of contemporary architectural development. He thus deserves reassessment of his importance in forming a domestic modernistic tradition, though it is concentrated in a short period (1908-1914) and limited space for realization (Hradec Králové, Jaroměř, Prague, Kutná Hora, and Brno). Fultner began studying in the autumn of 1904 at Czech Technical University in Prague, but its building construction program led by Josef Schulz and Jan Koula was considered backwards by modern creators. Influenced by agile schoolmates (P. Janák, J. Chochol, V. Hofman, E. Králík, O. Novotný ad.), he became involved in the activity of the revived Association of Students of Architecture (Spolek posluchačů architektury). He ceased proper studies at this school in 1906, and apparently got his education within the circle of pupils and studio employees of Jan Kotěra. Like his contemporaries, Fultner gained the opportunity to work on small jobs for an exhibition by the Chamber...
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Socio-cultural perspectives on the issue of housing in Czechoslovakia in the second half of the 20th century
Zadražilová, Lucie ; Ortová, Jitka (advisor) ; Švácha, Rostislav (referee) ; Czumalo, Vladimír (referee)
Prefabricated housing estates represent the most typical and widespread form of mass socialist home building in our country. Their form comes from the modernistic urban planning of the European inter-war avant-garde, but living there was typified by the principles of socialistic housing policy. These were home for more than three million Czech inhabitants. Nevertheless there are many myths and incorrect evaluations connected with them, and there are many areas of this complex phenomenon which have not yet been investigated. The cultural, social and physical aspects are linked through the study of cultural theory, which was chosen for this dissertation. The three main chapters are based on a comparison with traditional city structures, the observed spatial and social specifics of prefabricated housing estates on three levels: in the imaginations of their designers, who were influenced by contemporary intellectual trends, in their implementation under specific political and social conditions, and in the opportunities which this form of building could offer for the future. The first chapter deals with formation of prefabricated housing estates as new city structure with different form of urbanism. In the second chapter the spatial specifics are described by means of five criteria of the "habitable" space:...
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Kamil Hilbert, an Architect-Conservator
Fatková, Markéta ; Novotná, Eva (advisor) ; Švácha, Rostislav (referee)
Abstrakt_Diplomová práce_Kamil Hilbert, architekt - památkář.txt Kamil Hilbert, An Architect - Conservator The main terms: Kamil Hilbert, preservation of monuments, St. Vít's cathedral, historismus, secession Kamil Hilbert (*12. 2. 1869 Louny - †25. 6. 1933 Praha) was a Czech architect in the late 19th and early 20th century, most widely known as the last master builder of the St. Vít's cathedral in Prague. His work was mostly focused on historical monument preservation. At the same time, he worked as an architect and builder himself. He was not only creator and preservationist, but also an archeologist and, in its way, even an art historian. He published several interesting studies covering results of archeological excavations at building sites; he was also keen on art topography. Furthermore, he was one of the founding members of "Ústřední památková rada za české země", an agency established in 1911 in Wien whose mission was protection of historical monuments in Czech kingdom; he also acted as a supervisor and advisor at individual restoration projects. Working closely with an important Czech art historian Max Dvořák (a student of Riegel who introduced the modern historical monument preservation concepts), Hilbert built the foundations of modern historical monument preservation in the Czech lands. Up to...
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Forgotten villa by Karel Hannauer and the sociology of family housing
Hrabová, Martina ; Macek, Petr (advisor) ; Švácha, Rostislav (referee)
The impulse for this work was the archive discovery that enabled identification of an early work of the architect Karel Hannauer. In Prague quarter Libeň the author revealed a functionalist villa, previously known only from an article in a contemporary journal, hidden under a radical reconstruction made in the late thirties. The work covers several thematic issues. It deals with Karel Hannauer's participation in forming the Czechoslovak interwar architecture and his contribution to the transition of foreign influences (especially Le Corbusier's) to the Czech architectural design. The author focuses particularly on the architecture of family houses and in details describes four villas that Hannauer designed during the period of ten years before World War II. She also follows the changes of the political regimes influenced the structure of inhabitants and how the usage patterns and the appearance of the houses were changed during the time. By this way the thesis concerns also the relationship of the architecture and the sociology of housing. Coincidently Hannauer theoretically studied and taught the sociology of the architecture in the forties and fifties, when the totalitarian regimes restricted him from his architectonical work. Besides literature, the work is based on archival documentation studies, a...
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