Czech functionalism 1918-1938

Under the motto “catch up and overtake Europe” after the end of WWI, the newly created state – Czechoslovakia – began to build its existence. In architecture, it meant the creation of a new identity based on the tradition of pre-war Czech Cubism and inspired by Bauhaus, Le Corbusier and Dutch De Stijl, glowing with optimism and a new way of life. With three centres – Prague, Brno and Baťa´s Zlín – in which economic and architectural potential was concentrated, Czechoslovakia soon became one of the now-forgotten foci of international style, documenting a wide spectrum of various nuances of Functionalism from rationalist to aerodynamic and organic architectural concepts that represent proudly the democracy and humanism of Masaryk’s time. This phenomenon was stopped only by the Nazi occupation and later by the communist dictatorship, and today it is one of the important components of cultural discourse and heritage.

Prof. Vladimír Šlapeta studied architecture in Prague. From 1973-1991 he was director of the architectural department of the National Technical Museum in Prague and following the Velvet Revolution in 1989 he became Dean of the Faculty of Architecture in Prague and later at VUT in Brno. He was a Fulbright-Masaryk scholar at the Cooper Union in New York and is a member of the Akademie der Kunste in Berlin. He is the author of many exhibitions and books on Central European architecture of 20th century.