Zprávy památkové péče 2016, 76(6):591-602

Baba settlement and its heritage protection

Eliška Varyšová

The core of the Baba villa residential area in Prague's Dejvice is an exhibition colony known as Osada Baba, a set of 40 houses built by the Union of Czechoslovak Work in the 1930's. The colony, as a stylistically unified aggregate of functionalist houses, is still visible in the area and for this reason the entire area is protected as an urban heritage zone.
The Union of Czechoslovak Work organized the exhibition of Osada Baba as a manifesto of modern housing in 1932, modeled after the exhibition colonies of the Werkbund in other European countries - especially the Weissenhofsiedlung colony in Stuttgart from 1927. The Weissenhof, organized by the German Werkbund with the international participation of leading contemporary architects (L. Mies van der Rohe, W. Gropius, Le Corbusier, H. Scharoun, etc.) was the first event of its kind; it presented contemporary architectural trends, new designs, floor layouts, and architectural aesthetics in real form instead of in plans. Similar exhibitions then followed based on this pattern in Brno, Wroclaw, Zurich, Vienna, and Prague. The exhibitions were also intended to be a contribution to the current discussion about resolving the postwar housing crisis. The results were timeless and architecturally exceptional high-quality manifests of functionalist aesthetics in the form of residential neighborhoods.
While other colonies represented collective housing in various forms, the Baba settlement consisted only of individual houses primarily due to it being financed by private builders. Its construction was planned from 1928 and involved important Czech architects such as Pavel Janák, Josef Gocar, Oldřich Starý, and their upcoming colleagues Ladislav Žák and Hana Kučerova-Záveská. The objective was to present the public with newly organized living spaces, minimized and rationally designed housing, standardized elements in building, and austere functionalist aesthetics; terraced houses were originally intended to be presented as well. Due to problematic finances, however, many objectives were not met. For this reason, the entire event was later criticized, mainly by left-leaning architects headed by Karel Teige, as a bourgeois anachronism not reflecting the current demands of society.
An interesting chapter in the history of the settlement is not only its creation, but its later life as well. Unlike other European settlements, it was not damaged during the war but had to face numerous renovations, dispossessions, and lack of maintenance under the communist regime. Even though it received heritage protection in 1993, after the revolution, inappropriate modifications to the houses still continue today. In order to increase the operational standard of the houses, the owners install insulation, exchange the original windows for plastic, and remodeling, additions, and extensions of all kinds are increasing. This is resulting in the area gradually losing its authenticity, subtle construction, internal and external articulations, and ultimately considerable damage to the architectural qualities of the villas. Efforts are also increasingly emerging to completely reconstruct the houses; some are sensitive, while some result in devaluation. Given that heritage authorities are not always able to enforce heritage protection against the will of the owner, the future of the settlement is primarily in the hands of the builders and architects that they hire.
The protection and restoration of these functionalist houses and their technical and ideological issues are a very vivid illustration of the stories of the individual villas in Baba. Even so, Baba, in contrast to isolated functionalist heritage properties, is specific in that this is not a single building, but an urban and architectural ensemble of several dozen villas all with different owners. The preservation of the architectural and historical values of Baba thus depends on the owners' enlightenment and awareness of their properties' true values.

Keywords: Baba settlement; Werkbund; Union of Czechoslovak Work; functionalism; heritage protection of modern architecture

Published: December 1, 2016  Show citation