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Housing in Czechoslovakia, 1945–1960 Manufacturing a Socialist Modernity

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Housing in Czechoslovakia, 1945–1960 Manufacturing a Socialist Modernity Kimberly Elman Zarecor Housing in Czechoslovakia, 1945–1960 Manufacturing a SocialiSt Modernity Zarecor third pages.indd 1 2/24/11 2:54 PM Pitt SerieS in ruSSian and eaSt euroPean StudieS Jonathan harriS, editor Zarecor third pages.indd 2 2/24/11 2:54 PM Manufacturing a SocialiSt Modernity Housing in Czechoslovakia, 1945–1960 Kimberly elman Zarecor University of PittsbUrgh Press Zarecor third pages.indd 3 2/24/11 2:54 PM Published by the University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, Pa., 15260 Copyright © 2011, University of Pittsburgh Press All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Printed on acid-free paper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Text design and typesetting by Kachergis Book Design Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Zarecor, Kimberly Elman. Manufacturing a socialist modernity : housing in Czechoslovakia, 1945–1960 / Kimberly Elman Zarecor. p. cm. — (Pitt series in Russian and East European studies) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-8229-4404-1 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-8229-4404-9 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Architecture, Domestic—Czechoslovakia—History—20th century. 2. Architecture, Domestic—Political aspects—Czechoslovakia—History— 20th century. 3. Architecture and state—Czechoslovakia—History— 20th century. 4. Dwellings—Czechoslovakia—Design and construction— History—20th century. 5. Housing—Czechoslovakia—History—20th century. 6. Socialism—Czechoslovakia—History—20th century. 7. Social change— Czechoslovakia—History—20th century. 8. Modern movement (Architecture)— Czechoslovakia—History—20th century. 9. Czechoslovakia—Social condi- tions—1945–1992. I. Title. na7412.c9Z37 2011 720.9437´09045—dc22 2010045864 Zarecor third pages.indd 4 2/24/11 2:54 PM For Scott and Maximilian Zarecor third pages.indd 5 2/24/11 2:54 PM Zarecor third pages.indd 6 2/24/11 2:54 PM CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix Introduction: Writing a Postwar History 1 1 Phoenix Rising: Housing and the Early Debates on Socialist Modernity 13 2 Typification and Standardization: Stavoprojekt and the Transformation of Architectural Practice 69 3 National in Form, Socialist in Content: Sorela and Architectural Imagery 113 4 A Vision of Socialist Architecture: The Late Career of Jiří Kroha 177 5 The Industrialization of Housing: Zlín and the Evolution of the Panelák 224 Epilogue 295 Notes 299 Bibliography 361 Illustration Credits 369 Index 371 Zarecor third pages.indd 7 2/24/11 2:54 PM Zarecor third pages.indd 8 2/24/11 2:54 PM A CKNOWLEDGMENTS There are many people to thank for their help and support with this proj- ect. Kenneth Frampton showed me the many ways that an architect can be a designer—through buildings, words, and texts. His passion for architecture inspired me to be a better scholar and teacher, and for his guidance, support, and patience I will always be grateful. Bradley F. Abrams has been a won- derful mentor, friend, and enthusiastic reader. When no one else was inter- ested in the small details, his office door was always open, and I thank him for his encouragement and advice. I am also indebted to Reinhold Martin, Jorge Otero-Pailos, and Jean-Louis Cohen for their support, suggestions, and patience through a long project. When I first decided to write a book about former Czechoslovakia, I did not know the country’s languages, history, or architectural past. My first exposure to the Czech Republic was a weekend visit in 1999 to see the Tugendhat House in Brno with a group led by Terrence Riley from the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Barry Bergdoll from Columbia University. Not only did the house astonish me but I also discovered a beautiful city full of modern buildings by architects with unknown names and precious few resources in Western Euro- pean languages to tell me more. For this first glimpse of modernism in the for- mer Czechoslovakia, I am grateful to them. I also thank Mary McLeod, Robin Middleton, Catherine Nepomnyashchy, Joan Ockman, Mark von Hagen, Rich- ard Wortman, and Gwendolyn Wright. Marcela Ehrlich-Rýdlová, Peter Kussi, and Christopher Harwood taught me Czech—without them, this project would not have been possible. This project benefited from the support of many academic communities. I consider it a privilege to have studied with so many talented and brilliant ix Zarecor third pages.indd 9 2/24/11 2:54 PM people, including Esra Akcan, Veronica Aplenc, David Cooper, Lucy Miller Creagh, Krista Hegburg, Hyun Tae Jung, Rebekah Klein-Pejšová, Lucy Mauls- by, Thomas Ort, Ken Tadashi Oshima, David Rifkind, Ioanna Theocharopou- lou, Sjoukje van der Meulen, and Nader Vossoughian. Over the years I have also found an intellectual home among the interdisciplinary group of schol- ars working on the history of the former Czechoslovakia. In particular, I owe thanks to Shawn Clybor, Benjamin Frommer, David Gerlach, Eagle Glassheim, Alice Lovejoy, Andrea Orzoff, and Jindřich Toman. I have also found kindred spirits working on the history of European communism in other countries: Heather DeHaan, Irina Gigova, Eva Grigar, Ana Kladnik, Vladimir Kulić, Marie Alice L’Heureux, Brigitte Le Normand, Juliana Maxim, Elidor Mehili, Patrick Patterson, György Péteri, Karl Qualls, and David Tompkins. I also want to pay tribute to Mark Pittaway, whose untimely death was a tragedy for everyone who knew him. I am grateful for their shared enthusiasm for this topic. Ivan Delemontey, Kai Gutschow, Eric Jenkins, Klaus Rheinfurth, and Svatopluk Sládeček deserve thanks for their help with images and sources. This project could not have been completed without the support of many people in the Czech Republic. I am grateful to Rostislav Švácha, from the Insti- tute of Art History of the Academy of Sciences in Prague, who assisted me with all aspects of my work, including securing funding, making personal con- tacts, and locating building addresses. Architect and magazine editor Osamu Okamura supported this project from start to finish, including driving me to Nová Dubnica in Slovakia. I thank him for his friendship, generosity, and espe- cially for his happy disposition every time I see him. Martin Strakoš from the Ostrava office of the National Heritage Institute (Národní památkový ústav) de- serves special recognition and gratitude for his critical help with my research. Over the years, he has answered many questions, walked patiently with me through neighborhoods over and over again, and supplied books that were hard to obtain in the United States. I will always be indebted to him for being a friend, a gracious host, and a fount of local knowledge. I would also like to thank Richard Biegel, Dita Dvořáková, Adam Gebrian, the Kužvart family, Mar- cela Macharáčková, Dana Malková, Henrieta Moravčíková, Petr Roubal, Sylva Šantavá-Krohová, Pavel Šopák, Jindřich Vybíral, and the staffs of the reading room at the National Archives in Prague and the Museum of the City of Brno. For their continued support, I thank my colleagues at Iowa State Univer- sity. The staff of the Interlibrary Loan Department at Parks Library has been excellent. Melissa Vandelac scanned and prepared many of the images in this book. My editor, Peter Kracht, and everyone at the University of Pittsburgh Press have been exceptional partners in this project. Maureen Creamer Bem- x Acknowledgments Zarecor third pages.indd 10 2/24/11 2:54 PM ko was an excellent copyeditor. I also want to thank four anonymous readers for their insightful and constructive criticism of the manuscript. My research has been supported by a number of grants, including a Pep- sico Summer Fellowship from the Harriman Institute, a U.S. Department of Education Fulbright-Hays Grant, an American Council of Learned Societies grant, and faculty fellowships from the Iowa State Center for Excellence in Arts and Humanities. The publication of this book is supported by a grant from the Iowa State University Publication Endowment Fund. Finally, I am grateful to my family for their support through this long project. A special thank-you goes to my husband, Scott Zarecor, who has suf- fered through the daily grind with me for more than a decade. One of the great rewards of finishing this project will be the chance to spend more time with him and our son, Maximilian. Acknowledgments xi Zarecor third pages.indd 11 2/24/11 2:54 PM Zarecor third pages.indd 12 2/24/11 2:54 PM Manufacturing a SocialiSt Modernity Zarecor third pages.indd 13 2/24/11 2:54 PM POLAND N GERMANY Ústí nad Labem Litvínov SOVIET UNION Most Pardubice Kladno Prague Ostrava v Plzen Olomouc Zlín (Gottwaldov) Brno Kosicev v Ceské Nová Dubnica Budejovicev Bratislava ROMANIA AUSTRIA HUNGARY Czechoslovakia in 1945 0 30 60 mi Sudentenland Subcarpathian Ruthenia 0 50 100 km Border countries in 1945 Cze Choslovakia in its regional Context, 1945 xiv Zarecor third pages.indd 14 2/24/11 2:54 PM i ntroduction W riting a Postwar History The biggest victim of the Stalinization of architecture was housing. [Karel] Teige would have recoiled in horror at the endless drab rows of prefabricated boxes of mass housing proliferating around all the major cities of Czechoslo- vakia. Here was the exact antithesis of his utopia of collective dwelling, resem- bling more the housing barracks of capitalist rent exploitation and greed than the joyful housing developments of a new socialist paradise. The result was one of the most depressing collections of banality in the history of Czech architecture, one that still mars the architectural landscape of this small coun- try and will be difficult—if not impossible—to erase from its map for decades, if not centuries. Eric Dluhosch, 2002 Few building types are as vilified as the socialist housing block. Built by the thousands in Eastern Europe in the decades after World War II, the apartment buildings of the planned economy are notorious for problems such as faulty construction methods, lack of space, nonexistent landscaping, long-term maintenance lapses, and general ugliness.
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