Editors: Ana Tostões
Guest editors: Henrieta Moravčíková
Keywords: Modern Movement, Modern architecture, Eastern European architecture, Cold War architecture.
While visiting the MAO (Museum of Architecture and Design) in Ljubljana one can appreciate the architectural power of Stanko Kristl’s work. The impressive buildings of this Slovenian architect revealed through the exhibition "Humanity and Space", illuminate the beauty of the museum space with some astonishing works and show why Eastern Europe deserves to be included in the historiography of the Modern Movement, to clearly demonstrate the contribution of Iron Curtain countries to the modern avant-garde. As Matevz Celik recognizes, “through his architecture he worked to provide responses to the needs of the people — for whom it was intended. This basic premise served as a guiding principle in experiments and his search for spatial and social innovation in architecture."
Published:
2018-11-01
Documentation Issues
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The Neolog [New] Synagogue in Žilina is an exceptional work, and not only through its having been designed in 1928 by the renowned architect Peter Behrens. The present contribution discusses this work by Peter Behrens – an important landmark constructed well outside the major urban centers for 20th century architecture in a provincial Slovak town. Its most recent restoration, completed in May 2017, lasted a full five years. During this time, many discussions took place among heritage experts, theorists and architects, which eventually formulated the architectonic idea of the...
Editorial
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While visiting the MAO (Museum of Architecture and Design) in Ljubljana one can appreciate the architectural power of Stanko Kristl’s work. The impressive buildings of this Slovenian architect revealed through the exhibition "Humanity and Space", illuminate the beauty of the museum space with some astonishing works and show why Eastern Europe deserves to be included in the historiography of the Modern Movement, to clearly demonstrate the contribution of Iron Curtain countries to the modern avant-garde. As Matevz Celik recognizes, “through his architecture he worked to provide responses...
Essays
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Reviewing the research on post-war modern Hungarian architecture we find a serious backwardness. This paper presents an overview of the situation and an explanation focusing on three factors. The first is the underestimation of the socialist modern architecture by the lay public, but also by some professionals. The second field of investigation is the research background: institutes, researchers, funds and the accessibility of archival material, and the results achieved despite the difficulties. The paper also surveys the preservation of this heritage, and finally presents a recent...
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Though there are fans of the “Bauhaus style” and the term is largely used by the real estate market (in an incorrect way), modern architecture cannot arouse interest and sympathy in the majority of Hungarian society. Far from being a closed chapter, interwar architecture does not stand in the lime-light of Hungarian historiography either. This paper tries to find causes of this indifference and highlight achievements in historiography and preservation. Its aim is in particular to report on new scholarly publications as well as case studies that are occasionally good examples but more...
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In the interwar era, architectural journals were at the forefront of professional attention and had the power to disseminate the Modern Movement in architecture globally. The Hungarian journal Tér és Forma (1928-1948) took the lead to introduce international modern architecture to the Hungarian public, while continually reporting on the newest building projects in interwar Hungary. Virgil Bierbauer, the periodical’s long-time editor (1928-1942), presented the broad panorama of contemporary architecture and his followers from 1943 intended to continue his legacy even in wartime. The...
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A concept of a collective house that would include apartments and a wide array of communal facilities was a topic of intensive debate in Czechoslovakia throughout the 20th century. This topic was popular not only among architects, but most importantly among feminists, social activists, sociologists, politicians or businessmen. Debaters projected onto these houses their ideas of a future political and social system of Czechoslovakia. For some, shared living was a way to facilitate the arrival of communism, for others it represented a means to develop liberal capitalism. This article...
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This paper looks at the changes in hotel architecture in post-war Czechoslovakia. In particular, the way in which architects, either with the support of or, in some cases, in resistance to the political dictate, handled the inspirational influences that came from abroad. Namely the Soviet models forced on them, or the ideas that seeped through from the other side of the Iron Curtain that were closer to the Czech modernist environment. The resulting approach of compromises and mixing influences, typical for a small country in the middle of Europe, gave rise to imaginative combinations of...
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Work of the architect Friedrich Weinwurm represents the most consistent contribution from within Slovakia to the activities of the international architectural avant-garde. Friedrich Weinwurm fully matched the idea of a socialist-minded architect, organizer of public life and visionary of a new social order. The new way that Friedrich Weinwurm followed in his architectural work ran parallel to the paths of the leading representatives of the European left-wing avant-garde. In Slovakia, these works represented the most coherent allegiance to the program of the New Objectivity, and the...
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This paper summarizes the creation and formulation of the modern addition to the Slovak National Gallery, an iconic architectural work of post-war Modernism in Czechoslovakia which instigated a major discussion between specialists and the general public already from its construction time. In the second part of the text, related to the reconstruction currently underway, I attempt to interpret the actual process of this building’s reconstruction and remodeling, which could be viewed as a physical dimension of the discussion on the polarizing effects of Modern Movement architectonic...
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This article discussess Cankarjev Dom and Republic Square in Ljubljana, Slovenia, by Edvard Ravnikar with the focus on three stage of the genesis of cultural centers in Slovenia, starting with the pre-war Slovenian cultural centers by Max Fabiani, Danilo Fürst and Gustav Trenz. The second phase is represented by the cultural centers of the architects Oton Gaspari, Marko Župančič and Emil Navinšek from the 1950s built in the Slovenian industrial towns of Trbovlje, Velenje, and Zagorje, and the third phase by Edvard Ravnikar and his students such as Biro71 and Marko Mušič from the late...
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Industrialization caused the biggest technological changes in human history, which called for not only new ways of working but also of living, education, and life as a whole. Eventually the world became the global market that we know today, when we are on the threshold of 5.0 Industry, when utopia is becoming reality. Despite its peripheral role, Slovenia started to change quite early under the influences of industrialization; these changes accelerated in the 19th century and gained momentum during socialist industrialization, when organized heritage protection started to develop...
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It was an event that rarely happens in this part of the world: the construction of a brand-new capital city in a country which was not famous for its achievements in city building. Furthermore, it was in a country ravaged by WWII, rural and mostly agricultural, with modest industrial capacities. Today, 70 years after the beginning of its construction, New Belgrade is still one of the most contentious topics of architecture and urban planning in Serbia. It is the most beloved and the most hated, biggest success story and biggest failure, most beautiful and ugliest architecture of the city...
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Memorial sites dedicated to the National Liberation War, revolution and the victims of fascism have played an important role in the cultural and political life of the socialist Yugoslavia. The changing political course of Yugoslavia from 1948 influenced its cultural strategy. This reflected the artists’ sensibility and tendency towards abstract sculpture, which culminated during the 1960s and 1970s. In this essay we will examine the influx of modern art and architecture on the aesthetics of the memorials from the era. We will also focus on their contemporary representation as an...
Introduction
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Although many 20th century phenomena have seen comparisons made across the European continent, divided by the former Iron Curtain for a half of the century, there is still room for confrontation and reconciliation. Firstly, because research continues, new contexts are emerging, the perspective of evaluation and the perception of the heritage of Modernism is changing, but also because, in addition to the artificial political structure of the Iron Curtain, which has disappeared along with the disappearance of the Eastern and Western Blocs, a number of constructs such as the territorial or...
