Author: Peter Szalay
(Re)vision of Monument Care?
Who Formed the Architectural Appearance of Trnava in the Years 1918 – 1945?
The appearance of modern Trnava is the joint work of many important Czech, Moravian, and Slovak architects. The building of the District Health Insurance office is a national heritage monument also listed in the DOCOMOMO register, and there are many more buildings constructed in Trnava in the 1918 – 1945 period that deserve national heritage status. Proof for this contention is the quality of the designs from the architects then active in Trnava, many of whom are credited with realisations in other Slovak towns that are already under national heritage protection. No less impressive work was rendered by the contractors and their workers, as confirmed by the inspection reports and indeed the users of the buildings. However, a major share of the credit for the completion of this exceptional array of publicly beneficial buildings should be assigned to the activities of the management in the era’s medical facilities, schools, public offices, organisational supervisors, national governmental bodies, and others who made the decisions and allotted state aid for construction. And in turn, the state itself assisted this development through the passing of various laws on construction and financial support. The archival documents confirm enormous efforts by certain institutional heads and public officials who worked hard to improve health care, schooling, and housing in the city. These efforts extended to the adherence to legally set construction deadlines, and to the creation of buildings of undeniable architectural and technical quality, many of which serve their original function even today.
Architecture Without Architects. Informal Redevelopment of Late-Modern Prefabricated Housing in Tbilisi, Georgia
Unplanned architecture was a phenomenon that occurred in the former Eastern Bloc Countries, particularly in Georgia, Armenia, and Ukraine, mainly in the 1980s. The term describes self-build architecture and additional extensions to existing buildings, created by the inhabitants themselves as non-architects. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the lack of social housing and regulations resulted in “do-it-yourself” solutions to provide the necessary spaces for living. Similarly, in the former Czechoslovakia, urban planners began to imagine the “humanization” of the country’s prefabricated housing estates. Currently, the self-regulated urban system is approaching the point where history repeats itself, now in the tragic destruction of Ukraine, not only its inhabitants but also its cities.
The Concept of Homage in VAL’s E-temen-an-ki Project
The text is devoted to one of the eight projects of the Slovak art-architectural group VAL, active in the 1970s through the 1990s, the work of which falls into the category of visionary architecture. The following study is part of a broader historical-architectural research project involving VAL, one of the aims of which is an attempt to formulate an original conception of the group and to explore the possible development of their architectural thinking over time. Using the selected project E-temen-an-ki – Sheraton Hotel Babylon, it explores one of the characteristic motifs of the group’s work, which is the concept of homage, and the way it is grasped and manifested in the project.
From Kraus to Orbis: The Two Window Designs of Armin Kraus between Vision and Practicality
In the late 1920s, the Bratislava company of the metalsmith Armin Kraus produced an intriguing window design. Unique for its folding opening mechanism and an unusual combination of wood and steel, it represents one of the most original examples of windows produced in inter-war Czechoslovakia. Although the window was well received by the avant-garde, it struggled as a commercial product, despite Kraus’ efforts to innovate the design or to partner with larger companies. This contrast between the reception from architects and the public highlights an issue typical of many Modernist technical innovations, which despite promises of comfort and affordability often suffered from unexpected issues.
Rusovce Manor House and Its Neo-Gothic Rebuilding. New Findings from Artistic and Archival Materials
The theme of the study is the manor house in Rusovce, near Bratislava, built in the neo-Gothic style, designed by a prominent Austrian architect working in noble circles in the monarchy, Franz Beer (1804 – 1861). Between 1841 and 1846, a radical reconstruction of the manor in the neo-Gothic style was carried out, commissioned by Count Emanuel Zichy Ferraris (1808-1877). The house was the cause of public interest shortly after its completion, as is shown in the first visual depictions. The collections of the Slovak National Gallery contain two works of art which relate to the period around 1850 and evidence the artistic depiction of this monument. Alongside a 1847 watercolour, containing a view of the building and made by an unknown author (but probably the architect Beer) we have a sketchbook of drawings by Count Viktor Odescalchi (1833 – 1900) from the years 1851 and 1852, where he recorded his visits of Rusovce. In terms of extant surviving archival documents the most recent addition to our knowledge of the Rusovce rebuilding is a building journal, found in the Zichy family archive in the Hungarian National Archive in Budapest. These new visual and archival documents interpretation are the subjects of this study.
Historical Evolution and Contemporary Examples of Hungarian Social Housing
There is a lack of a housing system based on common social responsibility in Hungary. There were attempts to create wider social housing system after democratic transition, but the lack of coherent social support a comprehensive system has not able to be established. The small number of new social housing projects were completed in an isolated way. They have never reached a critical mass. Apart of the existing historical, outdated municipal housing stock fulfils this function.
From Agricultural Village to Socialist Industrial Town
Town of Strážske has gained recent attention because of heavy contamination with PCBs produced in Chemko Strážske, which was established in August 1952. Since then, small village in region of Upper Zemplín in eastern Slovakia had experienced a rapid industrialisation and urbanisation. Promising economic development quickly led to migration of builders and future factory workers to Strážske. New housing estates, „hostel for singles”, public and recreational amenities were built simultaneously with the factory construction. Growing population and urban development had a single goal – to support the industrial development. Industrial and spatial development changed Strážske from a small agricultural village to a thriving socialist industrial town, gaining town status in 1968. This paper aims to present the comprehensive picture of the urban development of Strážske from the 1950s to the present with an emphasis on socialist industrialization as the determinant of spatial development and socio-economic changes leading to emergence of brownfields and urban shrinkage.From Agricultural Village to Socialist Industrial Town
Analyzing contemporary image of the Olympic city Sarajevo: Modalities, Meanings and Negotiations
This work examines the visual identity of the city of Sarajevo, the host city of the XIV Winter Olympic Games 1984. It aims to question the role of the Olympic signs and symbols today, which do not solely exist as just visual interpretations but are set in the context of meaning – systems in a contested environment of post-Olympic, post-war, and divided city . By doing so, it looks closely at the concept of the Olympic city as a constructed visual identity, with particular emphasis on the analysis of the (in)consistency of the constructed city’s image in the period after the Games. It puts focus on the Olympic Games, not just as a large-scale, cross-cultural event, but also as a visual event and experience, where there is a wealth of information to be explored by evaluating its “visuality” and outlining the numerous ways in which the vision is formed. Applying the central contention that all signs and symbols have the potential to make some meanings available and rule out others, this work identified a set of factors that determine Sarajevo’s image. This leads us to the conclusion that an immense effort is being put into conceptually creating and aesthetically communicating the host city’s desired visual identity. To comprehend today’s image of Sarajevo as an Olympic city one must gain insight into the complex realities of national identity, the economy, and political and cultural influences.
Architecting Nature: The Pastoral Genre in Art Museum Design
How often do we get conscious of the fact that the function of art in general, and in relation to architectural space in particular, was dramatically changing throughout the course of history? And how is the consciousness of this historical transformative process relevant for the cultural and architectural discourse on museums and their architecture today? These are the main questions addressed in this paper, approached through a focus on the notion of leisure as a philosophy of good, or rather, healthy way of living and how it was embedded within the Renaissance spatial concept of diaeta, as a decisive element of the pastoral genre. Yet, as opposed to the pastoral genre in art and literature, where it was fully assessed and researched as a set of formal and operational means for expressing that particular philosophy, pastoral genre in architecture has not been sufficiently theorised. This paper provides a theoretical and historical inquiry into the pastoral genre as a promising topic of reconciling the perennial art-nature antithesis as practice of good, healthy life. The paper investigates the capacities of architecture to use such potent concepts from the broader cultural field and translate, or better transcode them into its own specific disciplinary language. In the end, it examines whether, and how, the concept of the pastoral survived at the onset of Modernity and whether it has both relevance and a future in the architectural and museum’s world today.
“For Us, It Was a New and Difficult Task”: Czechoslovak Embassy Buildings in the 1918–1939 Period and the Construction of State Representation
After 1918, the cultural construction of Czechoslovak identity and the search for forms of state representation in architecture also imprinted itself on the preparation and realization of buildings abroad. The embassy buildings – in addition to the pavilions and expositions at international exhibitions – were to petrify the shared idea about the advanced character of Czechoslovak culture, architecture and art industry. In the first half of the 1920s, architects looking for contemporary solutions for this typology were given the opportunity to implement them. More often, however, the “universal” internationally comprehensible morphology prevailed. More than the formal aspects of the objects, though, this study focuses on the instrumentalization of architecture for political goals, on the analysis of the mechanisms and processes leading to the provision of their designs and realizations, and on the rendering of an environment with often contradictory interests of the actors.
Imprint page
COVER
Juraj Blaško, photo: Muzeum města Brna, oddělení dějin architektury
PUBLISHED BY
© Institute of History SAS, Bratislava, June 2022 EDITORIAL ADDRESS
EDITORS OF THE ISSUE
Mgr. Gabriela Dudeková Kováčová, PhD., PhDr. Katarína Haberlandová, PhD., Mgr. Juraj Benko, PhD.
EDITOR
Gabriela Smetanová
EDITTING
Martin Tharp (ENG), Katarina Jošticová (SK), Pavlína Zelníčková, Martina Mojzesová (CZ)
TRANSLATIONS
Martin Tharp (ENG), Magdaléna Kobzová (SK)
LAYOUT
Juraj Blaško
PUBLISHED SEMIANNUALLY
EV 3179/09, ISSN 0044 8680(print), ISSN 2729 – 8752 (online)
IMPRINT PAGE
COVER
Juraj Blaško, illustration ilustrácia: Restoration of the Church in Handlová, Intervention of Karol Chudomelka. Source Zdroj: Archive of The Monuments Board of the Slovak Republic
PUBLISHED BY
© Institute of History SAS, Bratislava, June 2022 EDITORIAL ADDRESS
EDITOR
Gabriela Smetanová
EDITTING
Martin Tharp (ENG), Katarina Jošticová (SK), Pavlína Zelníčková, Martina Mojzesová (CZ)
TRANSLATIONS
Martin Tharp (ENG), Magdaléna Kobzová (SK)
LAYOUT
Juraj Blaško
PUBLISHED SEMIANNUALLY
EV 3179/09, ISSN 0044 8680(print), ISSN 2729 – 8752 (online)
The Orient on the Danube
KOMORA, Pavol, 2021. MEDZINÁRODNÝ DUNAJSKÝ
VEĽTRH V BRATISLAVE 1921 – 1942
[THE INTERNATIONAL DANUBE TRADE FAIR IN BRATISLAVA 1921 – 1941]
BRATISLAVA: SLOVAK
NATIONAL MUSEUM – MUSEUM OF
HISTORY
The Mountain Lodge Téry Hut Innovations in Alpine-Zone Architecture
The text maps the process of the architectural design of Téry Hut in the High Tatras. It l examines this mountain shelter in the context of the work of the architect Gedeon Majunke, the construction activities in the Tatra region, architectural innovations at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and the immediate circumstances of the building’s creation. It explores the innovations contrasting with traditional building methods and the tensions arising between a confined interior and an endless exterior. It focuses on the relationship between architecture and the environment, which determines its internal organization. Another observation concerns how the variability of the environment contrasts with the stability of the hut, for instance the massiveness of its vertical structures in contrast to the subtle innovative horizontal structures.
Project Institutes in Czechoslovakia in the 1970s
Creation in the Conditions of a Centrally Planned Economy during the Normalisation Period in Czechoslovakia
The majority of architectural realisations currently standing date from after 1945. In Czechoslovakia, in the period between 1948 and 1989 this production emerged in the context of socialist central planning, to which all architectural, urban, design and construction activity was subjugated. In the background of creative work lay the government bodies making essential decisions related to the assignment of work, its subsequent financial compensation, and no less finally its realisation. Undeniably, the conditions under which architecture is practiced are among the deciding factors of its ensuing quality. Our research takes as its goal the analysis of the functioning of project institutes to create a new standpoint for viewing postwar architecture and construction, and to expand our awareness of architectonic production in connection to its political-economic context. Here, it is essential to uncover the structure and pay attention to the mutual links between individual project institutes and ateliers, their employees, or even their individual projects.
Branding ‘New Istanbul’s’ Residential Real Estate: A Thematic Analysis of Residential Real Estate Ads for ‘Canal Istanbul’ and Environs
This paper attempts to uncover and analyze the dynamics of residential urban transformation in the vicinity of the controversial Istanbul mega-project, Canal Istanbul. The planned urban fabric along the prospective shores of Canal Istanbul is largely residential, and many of the projects are large-scale, ‘branded’ projects. Unoficially termed ‘New Istanbul’, this area was promoted heavily by the government in the run-up to the general elections of 2011. The messages contained therein were multi-layered and have changed over time. However, they focus in general on Turkey’s ambitions of becoming a regional power by 2023 (the Republic’s centennial), a desire to align the country more closely with its Ottoman past, and the promotion of family values, as well as a more conservative worldview. It is these distorted reflections of design culture, public policy, and the housing market that form the focal point of this research. By deconstructing pertinent elements of the New Istanbul discourse through a thematic content analysis of selected housing development websites, this study aims to uncover the unforeseen socio-spatial texture of a newly constructed urban periphery, shaped through the political discourse and exposed via the market.
Inconspicuous Modernism in the Handlová Church
The Church of St. Catherine in Handlová makes no pretence of surprising us with anything special at the first sight. When inspecting from the exterior, we can easily classify this building as a representative of Slovakia’s Gothic architecture. And to some extent it is. However, the truth is that the church’s current state is the result of a heritage restoration from the second half of the 20th century whose author is the architect Karol Chudomelka, and at the same time is the bearer of several modernist principles. These modernist elements are especially noticeable in the interior of the church. Chudomelka was not the first architect to use modernist architectural forms in the Handlová Church, yet any traces of its predecessors are preserved only in archival sources.
Architectural Competition Designs and the Construction of the International Hotels by Stavoprojekt Brno
The article focuses on the state design organization Stavoprojekt and its involvement in international architectural competitions for hotels in Czechoslovakia mainly in the 1960s. The research draws upon newly discovered archival materials, among them hotel plans for the cities of Brno, Ostrava, Karlovy Vary and Prague. Although Stavoprojekt and its branch in Brno are known mainly for the construction of apartments, the architects also created original architectural designs. The text deals with the Brno construction of the International Hotel and other unrealized hotel designs produced for competitions, presented to the public for the first time in the text. The architects’ efforts ended gradually due to the August occupation of Czechoslovakia and the onset of normalization.
The Architectural Heritage of Zagreb’s Reinforced-Concrete Industrial buildings after the Second World War and Its Landmark Protection
Industrial buildings in Zagreb after WWII were constructed in the Modernist manner as product of the industrialization of the Federative People’s Republic of Yugoslavia. Their designers were renowned architects of the Croatian Modern Movement from the pre-WWII period, continuing to practice modern architecture in the challenging collectivist times thereafter. Production halls, administrative buildings, chimneys, social service facilities and dormitories show a functionalist belief enriched by the elegant gigantism of reinforced concrete structures. Zagreb’s post-WWII industrial architecture, aesthetically equivalent to any contemporary concrete structures erected in either Western or Eastern Europe, is deserving of creatively reuse.
What Will You Be Like, Prague of the Year 2000? The Prague – Central Bohemian Agglomeration Plan in the Contextof Political Changes at the Turn of the 1960s and the 1970s
A new spatial plan for Prague was adopted in 1964. During the approval process, the government took into account the recommendations of experts in urbanism, and, in the interest of the areas’ economic revival, took the first administrative steps towards a planned interconnection of the city’s economy with that of the neighbouring Central Bohemian Region. A working group consisting of employees of the Office of the Chief Architect of the City of Prague, the Terplan state planning institute and other institutions was commissioned to carry out a preliminary study for the Prague-Central Bohemian agglomeration spatial plan. The group was led by Jiří Hrůza, an urban planner and prominent Czechoslovak town planning theorist.The planners considered the scientific-technical revolution to be an important force in the future dynamics of housing and social life in the agglomeration. Research into the social context of the scientific-technical revolution was carried out by a group of experts led by Marxist philosopher Radovan Richta, whose conclusions were part of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia’s ideological equipment from the mid-1960s. Contemporary sociological research provided another ideological basis for the project. Sociologists’ findings on the stratification of Czechoslovak society found their way into the concept of the spatial plan through a programme of targeted support for social mobility.
The Discourse on the Integration of Art and Architecture in the Mid-20th Century and its Contemporary Reflections
This paper draws attention to continuities and transformations within the discourse on the integration of art and architecture. The first part examines the modern synthesis of the arts through the works of Sigfried Giedion, Nikolaus Pevsner, Le Corbusier, Paul Damaz, André Bloc, Fernand Léger, and Asger Jorn. The second part investigates the links between this discourse of the mid-20th century and the subsequent forms of architecture and art that emerged in the decades that followed, as well as the contemporary discourse on connecting art and architecture that introduced new vocabulary and challenged those very same “traditional” concepts in which it was rooted.
The Multifunctional Cinema and Public Library Complex in Uzhhorod
Designed by the Košice architect Ľudovít Oelschläger, the building of the Uzhhorod city cinema and public library (1932) has become a marker of modernity for the city — in the design approach, the multifunctional character of the building, the respectful attitude to the historic space of the city center in the construction process and the stylistic solutions. This paper reviews the results of our archival research, mostly carried out in the State Archives of Zakarpattia Oblast, and information from the contemporary press. Analysis in the context of interwar cinema design trends in the Czechoslovak Republic and other countries is an integral part of the study.
The Method of Contrast and Its Decline after 1968
In the 1960s, Czech architects and preservationists promoted the view that new buildings in historic settings should be “contemporary” and should be designed in a contrasting manner. This belief implied that their authors had to find new methods of engagement with their context, avoid the approaches of neutral “preservationist architecture” and employ the formal methods of post-war Modernism. Support for this method was provided primarily by architectural historian Oldřich Dostál (1926–1966) and architect Bohuslav Fuchs (1895–1972). For many reasons, including political ones, contrast architecture lost its prestige after 1968 and even today is unpopular among heritage experts. Nonetheless, these circumstances should not imply that heritage protection should refuse to protect its results from the Sixties.
The Heritage of Postwar Modernism: Engaged Research
The current mono-thematic issue of Architektúra & urbanizmus edited by Henrieta Moravčíková, Peter Szalay and Rostislav Švácha, present soundings into the destruction and rejection of postwar modern architecture across a wide geographic span, from Belgium into Central Europe. The varied causes and narratives of the problematic acceptance of late 20th-century architectural heritage presented in the contributions might seem to indicate the persistence of a West-East division primarily through the function of the buildings under threat. The Belgian and German contributions stress the impact on mass and social housing, or more broadly the built legacy of the social policies of the Western welfare state. In the texts from post-socialist Europe, by contrast, the predominant theme is of threats to public infrastructure. All these studies reveal that in the countries that experienced post-socialist transformation, the most immediately threatened architectural heritage consists of works representing investments in socialist public infrastructure: in a sense confirming the assumption of a persistent anti-Communist animus in Europe’s East and a contrasting continuity of the public sphere in the capitalist West. Still, a detailed comparison of the actual processes leading to the disappearance of postwar architecture across Europe reveals that the strict dichotomy offered by this image should not be taken as a uniform truth. As indicated by Ákos Moravanszky, efforts toward the humanisation of architecture and policies to reduce social inequality were similar, in the early years of postwar Modernism, in both the socialist bloc and the West. Currently, with the prevailing political tendencies across Europe favouring neoliberal capitalism marked by the central idea of a minimal state and unregulated market growth, there is a common effort to use architecture in the race for the greatest economic value-extraction from the built environment. Whether it is a question of the privatisation of social and public housing funds and its associated infrastructure in the West, or the privatisation of the grandiosely sized socialist public works in the East, the gaining of profits from real estate is in no way limited either by social and public function, or by architectonic and urban form.
