Research projects
Responsible person
Responsible team
duration of the project
2023-2027
Responsible person
Responsible team
duration of the project
2018-2022
Annotation
Czech post-war architecture has in recent years been the subject of substantial attention from the professional community and the general public. Dozens of publications, exhibitions, and research projects have emerged that focus on the optimistic sixties and the echoes of that era in the seventies. However, the architecture of the very next decade has thus far been ignored. Despite the system of socio-political normalisation in effect at the time, the eighties are deserving of detailed research. It was a decade that produced many new ideas. Despite the political restrictions, contemporary theories made it into Czechoslovakia from abroad, and this included theories on the postmodern humanisation of modern and industrialised construction and the first signs of a more responsible approach in relation to the living environment. Many activities and discussions in the professional architectural community took on the character of a search for a parallel, humanised reality (e.g. Urbanity, Painted Architecture), and in the second half of the decade this social ferment also certainly mirrored the gradual thaw in the regime that was under way. Together with the after-effects of building projects from the sixties and seventies and alongside the highly centralised and politicised stream of standard production, the eighties saw the gradual rise of parallel alternative trends and high ambitions in architectural practice that reached well beyond the closed atmosphere of the era and the border of the socialist state. This NAKI project seeks to map the architecture of that period, its background in theory, and specific projects, buildings, interiors, and structures, and also aims to make a record of the current condition of the building stock from that period.
Responsible person
Responsible team
department
duration of the project
2017
Responsible person
Responsible team
duration of the project
2017
Responsible person
Responsible team
duration of the project
2017-2019
Annotation
The house of culture appears after 1945 as a new building type. It is, unlike the already existing cultural buildings, characterized by its multifunctionality and versatility. At its beginning, the ideology plays crucial role as it became the cultural and political centre of socialistic society. In addition to the effort to raise the level of cultural education, it is used for promoting the communistic party and government, spreading their resolutions, popularization of the science and technology, youth education and it is intended to serve as the centre of culture and entertainment of socialistic working class. At the same time it acted as the mean of propaganda and control over the art and cultural events. On the other hand it allowed to raise several alternative music and theatre scenes as well as it brought the alternative to the architecture. Thanks to its location it also plays important role in the urbanism of the city - it is usualy located very close to the city centre with the great connection to public infrastructure and it begins the important cultural and community meeting point for its area. Today, the houses of culture are accepted mainly negatively, especially by the general public and they are seen as the relic of the past times, which are hard to adapt to the today society. It is given by the often controversal urbanism, oversized spaces, economically difficult operation and mainly by the label of socialistic architecture. How we should handle these buildings today? Do they still play an important role in the community, or has this way of spending the free time been already overcome? Is it economically convenient to continue to use and converse them? Is it possible to transform them in a way they reflect the current lifestyle and keep their architectual quality in a same time? The aim of the project is to find the answers to this questions, trying to create a methodology on how to approach the conversion of the houses of culture, how to improve the
Responsible person
Responsible team
department
duration of the project
2017
Responsible person
Dulla, M.
Responsible team
duration of the project
2016
Responsible person
Dulla, M.
Responsible team
duration of the project
2016
Responsible person
Dulla, M.
Responsible team
duration of the project
2015
Responsible person
Responsible team
duration of the project
2015-2017
Annotation
The project aims at evaluation of the existing built substance as well as emerging architectural production with respect to the impact of two principal determinants which together have a decisive influence on the final form of a work of architecture. These determinants are public interest on one hand, represented by legal norms and by the position of state to architectural and building production, and public culture on the other hand, which, as the carrier of cultural values, reflects the atmosphere in the society and the ever-changing taste responding to social and cultural circumstances. The research covers an extensive time span from early 20th century to present day, and thus takes in account the changes of social and political systems, innovations in building technologies, and the development of architectural production in the given period of time.