Zprávy památkové péče 2014, 74(3):212-219

Specifics of the heritage assessment of the Baťa development in Zlín

Klára Hodaňová, Věra Horová, Karel Kuča

The topic of this article is the application of the methodology of heritage assessment of buildings in the conditions of the specific modern city of the interwar period that the city of Zlín represents. Zlín was built as a direct result of the massive development of the Baťa shoe company. The entire city thus had a single investor, a fact which led to a unified urban and architectural design. Zlín architecture is characterized by a general application of gray red bricks in combination with light, visually vested construction and other structural elements. The gray brick facades, however, are very sensitive to later modifications. While in its authentic form, the entire new Zlín buildings were classifiable under the category of "architecturally valuable buildings", later interventions substantially reduced or even destroyed the architectural quality of many buildings. This is especially true of the typical residential quarters with carpet construction of houses with cubic materials that make up, both in surface and amount, the largest part of the Zlín development. The authors have successfully attempted to define the characteristic features by which a building can be classified into the appropriate value category according to conservation methodology. A significant role in this is played not only by cases of interference with the original mass volume of the building, but also by the rate of modification of facades, including the ceramic tile type, which usually replaces the original grey surface of the walls. While most of the tiles used tend to reduce the value of the buildings, the use of tile faithfully imitating the original visual effect of the masonry is an exception. It is this very phenomenon that must be supplemented into the existing methodology. Part of the value of the environment of the heritage zone, proclaimed in Zlín in 1990, is the semi-private nature of the urban blocks where the individual houses were separated only by low hedges. Where the formerly rented houses were privatized, these hedges have been inappropriately replaced by high hedges or fixed fences. This aspect should also be focused upon when evaluating, and supplemented to the methodology. The same applies to the expansion of parking areas and paved areas at the expense of grassy areas. The authors demonstrated that the present method may be fully applied to the specific phenomenon of Zlín only with partial modifications. When evaluating the heritage values of a territory in this way, a precarious degree of interruption to the heritage values of the city appear plastically and simultaneously, continuing even today. If globally unique heritage values of a town are to be preserved and, where possible, rehabilitated, it is essential to formulate more precise conditions for construction work in the area and to require their strict compliance.

Keywords: Zlín, modern architecture, 20th century urbanism, the Baťa company, heritage care of the villa district

Published: September 1, 2014  Show citation