Zlín : A Special Case in Architecture

Abstract

The Czech contribution to the international architectural discourse of the interwar period can be demonstrated by a large number of publications and exhibitions. The focus has been on the centers of avat-grade movements in Prague, Brno and Bratislava. Designed as a functionally mixed, districted city with many green areas, Zlín reflects the urban development principles of its time, which were later elaborated in the Athens Charter and Became a model for a whole generation of architects. This article addresses the question of why Zlín holds a unique position in the discourse of central European modernism as its first and only Functionalist municipality. The use of new technologies, such as standardization and prefabrication, represented sufficient value for the architects of classical modernism, but in the end the various approaches were based on aesthetic principles which are today hnown as Neues Bauen, Functionalism or the international style. Zlín, as an individualist-capitalist manifestation of Baťa's footwear empire based on the economy principle, was not a suitable guiding model for the avant-grade because it was not primarily about the enthronement of modern architecture. In Zlín, architecture was an economic factor, which symbolized and at the same time communicated the Baťa brand. Zlín was not only a Czech Detroit, but also a Moravian precursor of Bilbao, in the sense that its architecture was used as part of the Baťa brand's image.