Zprávy památkové péče 2018, 78(6):624-638 | DOI: 10.56112/zpp.2018.6.08

Typological transformations in Czechoslovak architecture of the 1960's and 70's

Lenka Popelová, Radomíra Sedláková, Tomáš Šenberger

Fakulta stavební ČVUT v Praze

The paper presents three aspects of the typological transformation of the architecture of the 1960's and 70's. The first part deals with the influence of social change. The 1960's marked a great shift in Czech architecture in the search for new trends, perhaps in all respects, including finding solutions to traditional typological problems. The potential of the project, collected up until 1970 either as part of competitions or as directly assigned projects, was great. It may have seemed at the time that it would continue to develop: large-scale structures, both new and (for Czechoslovakia) exceptional (e.g. the Federal Assembly, the Intercontinetal Hotel, and the TV tower with hotel on Ještěd) were being gradually completed. The process of normalization, however, fundamentally changed the situation. A number of projects nearly ready for execution were abandoned, and studies were postponed. This was primarily due to the transformation of a society that had suddenly lost its sense of grandiosity, seeking instead simple solutions with an emphasis on the economic aspect of building and repeatability. The process of designing new structures was seen as a production activity with the necessity of increasing the efficiency of the work on a continuous basis. What became the basis for most projects was the application of typified solutions developed for particular functional units, followed up by the use of standardized building and construction elements. The use of prefabricated elements from collective housing systems began to be applied to non-residential buildings. In many cases, such a procedure was actually much more costly in the end, but the decisive issue was the how all steps of the construction process could be planned from the design phase to project completion. After the onset of normalization, public tenders ceased to be announced; only intra-company competitions within a single project institute remained. Projects that were to be implemented had to first be approved by the factory that would execute it in order to ensure a trouble-free construction. In some cases, this led to a disproportionate prolonging of the launch of construction, or even a change in the originally intended construction technology. One of the few exceptions was the rapid construction of individual structures of foreign trade enterprises in Prague in 1977 and 1978. Indeed, this was not caused by a relaxation of the established rules, but by the fire that ravaged the Trade Fair (Veletržní) Palace. In general, however, there was no extension in the range of building types.
The second part of the paper deals with the competition projects of the 1960's. In the decade before, construction in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic had been mainly concentrated on building industry and on solving the housing crisis. The method of socialist realism was also limiting, as Czechoslovak architecture was far behind the rest of the world. The spectrum of typologies began to spread only in the 1960's. Due to the increased demand for new buildings, a larger number of architectural competitions began to be published - many of them were aimed at helping to test new designs of individual typologies. The development of individual typologies was given a great deal of attention during this period, and professional centers were set up with the aim of systematic and methodic development. Competitions were not the only tool, but they still represent a certain period phenomenon that had a positive influence on the development of the 1960's and 1970's (even though the fact remains that the competition proposals always focused more on a form/formal solution of the given tasks, and typology was secondary for many reasons).
The reason why certain typologies were resolved more by competitions at the time was based on both the general social and political situation of the time, as well as specific operational/availability and technical/technological reasons. Another reason was based on to what degree a particular typology was associated with typification - it was paradoxical that the competition rules stated the requirement for the competition to be listed only for the most important contracts and "especially for proposals concerning mass construction". In practice, this was not the case. For many types of structures at the beginning of the 1960's, there existed no expedient modern solutions, and the objective of the competition was to find such solutions and to stimulate discussion. The efforts to promote competitions as a common method of the designing process, which would to some extent offset the inflexibility of socialist construction, were also essential.
The last part of the paper is devoted to typological transformations of industrial buildings. The complexity of the typology of industrial structures led to the gradual creation of a number of specialized project offices focused on individual industries as early as from 1948. By the end of the 1960's, their number and scope was more or less stabilized. In parallel, there were several large construction companies that focused on the realization of industrial and engineering buildings. Additionally, an attempt was made to apply typification across all professions, whether on the level of the entire plant, the building, or at least elements. The typology of industrial plants in the late 1960's and early 1970's, however, was guided by new trends that promoted an operational economy, the quality of the work environment, but also initial efforts to protect the environment. Efforts to minimize the size of properties thus reducing the extent of occupied agricultural land, to rationalize and shorten operational links, to improve the working environment, and at the same time to reduce demands on energy resulted in completely new typological concepts that also brought significant positive impacts on overall architectural designs. When designing multipurpose plants, these new trends were reflected most of all in the concept of factories concentrated in a single monoblock. The method of zones and sections was applied in a single building, predominantly with an open warehouse style. The individual parallel zones ran in the same order - from the workers' zone, through the production zone, to the warehouse and transport zone. Everything was organized under one roof, minimizing both surface and energy losses. Only energy and hazardous facilities were placed outside the monoblock.
This resulted, also due to to new building materials, in architectonically remarkable realizations such as Fezko Strakonice (1967-1972), the Gustav Kliment plant in Znojmo (1976), TOS Hostivař (1974), and the Bohemia Glassworks in Světlá nad Sázavou (1975).

Keywords: post-war architecture, brutalism, typology, industrial buildings, architectural competitions

Published: December 1, 2018  Show citation