Architektúra & Urbanizmus – JOURNAL
The journal publishes research results in the fields of architecture and urban planning.
Liberated Space:Care – Architecture – Feminism1
21 September 2023 – 28 April 2024
Bratislava City Gallery
Curator: Petra Hlaváčková
Curator of artistic interventions: Nicole Sabella
Graphic design: Alina Matějová
Exhibition architecture: Janica Šipulová (Consequence Forma Architects), WOVEN
(Vý)stavoprojekt Trnava,Trenčín, Piešťany,
2023
Tóthová, Lucia
Trenčín: Projekt Hlava V/ Catch V
ISBN: 978-80-974793-0-5
kali- / ARCH- / FI-FO / TYPO.
František Kalivoda (1913–1971):vize a návraty modernismu,
2023
Chatrný, Jindřich and Svobodová, Markéta (eds.)
Brno: Brno City Museum and the Institute of Art History of the Czech Academy of Sciences
ISBN 978-80-86549-32-3
The socialist period in Poland and other states in Central and Eastern Europe was associated with the country’s planned industrialisation and urbanisation. The effect of such a policy was the progressive development of urban areas, especially large cities, and an increase in the concentration of population in their area. This growth was fostered by the location of new industrial plants within the cities, the influx of people from rural areas, and socialized housing construction, in which the leading role was played by the construction of prefabricated block housing estates in cities. In parallel, the development of cities occurred during this period at the expense of the deceleration of suburbanisation in their surroundings. However, the end of the socialist period and the beginning of the transition period witnessed the development of single-family housing in the hinterland zones of large Polish cities. In fact, the spread of the private car and the liberalisation of land prices triggered a second wave of suburbanisation processes in suburban areas. The purpose of this article was to identify the main trends in housing construction in the hinterland zone of Wrocław in the years 1971–2011 and to determine the spatial effects of these processes in relation to morphological changes in suburban villages. It was assumed that the beginning of the transformation period (1989–2002) was associated with a change in the locations of concentration of construction activity,moving away from the core city and its satellite towns at the end of the socialist period (1971–1988) toward the core city and the villages of the suburban zone in the modern period (2002–2011).
Even prior to the First World War, the challenging or indeed catastrophic housing situation in Košice was a regular topic of discussion in the city’s press. The war years, followed by the collapse of the Habsburg Empire and the establishment of the First Czechoslovak Republic, threw the city into an entirely new reality, yet still confronting the problem of insufficient housing stock. Although the Czechoslovak state responded to the housing crisis by introducing new policies as early as the beginning of 1919, the chronic shortage of residential accommodation continued to have a negative impact on the city’s population, in particular the lower classes. The study is the result of the author’s long-term archival research and offers positive examples of the city’s efforts to provide the poor with satisfactory solutions to the housing crisis throughout the entire interwar period.
The synagogue in Trenčín is one of the most important examples of synagogue or sacral architecture of the early 20th century in Slovakia, but also of the architecture of this period in the wider Central European region. As a result, it is mentioned in many texts, though its published information differs in many ways. In turn, there are also still many questions posed by the building itself. In the context of its ongoing comprehensive renovation and restoration, what suddenly emerges is a changed image of an architecture hitherto generally perceived in terms of a purist-modernist white austerity. The discovery of ornamental coloured layers covering highly innovative steel-concrete load-bearing elements reveals that these structural aspects are suddenly just the carrier of another layer of meaning – a veneer of decoration referring to sources of oriental traditions in the modernist version. The aim of the present study is to develop a more complexly nuanced interpretation of the work through archival research methods, analysis of its art-historical context, as well as research into the specific historical circumstances and motivations leading to its creation. Major gaps and contradictions are no less present in our knowledge of the life stories and work of its creators (even to the extent that individual surnames or first names are known only as initials); therefore, the study also includes brief biographical profiles of these persons.
After Subcarpathian Ruthenia became part of the First Czechoslovak Republic in 1919, the government faced numerous challenges in the development of the healthcare system in the region and its capital. The paper aims to examine the impact of the Republic’s legislative framework and the peculiarities of Uzhhorod’s needs on priorities in the construction and, in certain cases design, of medical institutions in the city. Although the implementation of state policy in Uzhhorod was not always reflected in new architectural structures, each of the discussed objects became an example of the newest standards and requirements regarding technical equipment and hygiene. While the Uzhhorod case study is site-specific, the lessons can be broadly applicable.
Late Modernist architectural works are confronted with an ambivalent situation between heritage acknowledgement and physical destruction. The text aims to explain the growing interest in their protection as a natural evolution of monument preservation, yet simultaneously questions the effectiveness of current procedures regarding the specifics of the given architecture. The Mäusebunker case study illustrates an approach of institutionalized preservation in terms of an architectural strategy of adaptive reuse, focusing more on the preservation of principle than of the image. It presents a method of working with post-war architecture that focuses on its active engagement with contemporary life within the values of sustainability.
This paper traces the continuities between the post-war Polish husband-and-wife architect duo of Oskar and Zofia Hansen, and their predecessors from the interwar avant-garde, the husband-and-wife artist duo of painter Władysław Strzemiński and sculptor Katarzyna Kobro. It argues that the Hansens’ Open Form (1958) approach extended the essentialism of Strzemiński and Kobro’s theory of Unism (1924) to advance a modern architecture. This paper analyzes the design for a memorial at Auschwitz-Birkenau that the Hansens worked on as part of a team for an international competition, called the Road (1958), as the crystallization of Unism’s influence on the theory of the Open Form.
The canon is generally understood as a body of the most important personalities and key works in a particular field, and for various reasons it evokes an impression of objectivity and impartiality. But is it really objective, or does it exclude someone or something? The study provides a critical reflection on the principles of the formation and reproduction of the canon of 20th century architecture – specifically on the example of its distribution in the academic environment through selected survey literature and syllabi of university courses. First, the text presents argumentation and findings by selected foreign and domestic scholars who view the general processes of canon formation mainly through a feminist perspective. Further, the text offers an content analysis of selected survey literature and syllabi for courses on the history of 20th century architecture taught at Czech universities. On this basis, the study concludes by attempting to answer the research question: What interpretation of architectural history is conveyed in the materials under study, and to what extent this is a history that takes into account the creative contributions of women and the circumstances of their lived experience in the field?
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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)
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)
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 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.
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.
