Review: Brno Architecture Manual, by Rostislav Koryčánek and Plzeň Architecture Manual, by Petr Klíma

Abstract

Rostislav Korycanek, scientific guarantor Brno Architecture Manual http://www.bam.brno.cz/en Petr Klima, project manager and editor Plzeň Architecture Manual http://pam.plzne.cz/en Czechoslovakia's interwar years bracket a significant period in the development of the country's avant-garde architecture, with all levels of Czech society embracing modernism as a progressive expression of national identity. In particular, functionalism emerged as the leading architectural style in Czechoslovakia during this time, with generous government contracts and investments from the private sector resulting in a substantial amount of new building that transformed the cities of Prague, Zlin, and Brno into vibrant centers of modern design. Brno, the capital of Moravia and the second-largest city in Czechoslovakia at that time, underwent extensive transformation during the mid-nineteenth century due to heavy industrialization. Brno expanded significantly in the 1860s after its fortifications were removed and the center grew outward according to principles that Austrian planners introduced from their work on Vienna's Ringstrasse. Eventually, in 1919, Velke Brno (Greater Brno) emerged as a suburban area that annexed several towns and municipalities into one city. This annexation coincided with the foundation of the Ceska Skola Architektury at Ceske Vysoke Uceni Technicke (the Czech School of Architecture at Czech Technical University) that same year, and the combined trajectories of both events resulted in a building boom that saw the construction of a large volume of high-quality modernist architecture, including office buildings, department stores, cultural centers, apartments and cooperative buildings, cafes, schools, sports facilities, and residences such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's Villa Tugendhat, dating from 1928–30. In addition to this new architecture, in …