Venice Biennale 2014, Italy
The duality of the task – a preciesly defined time frame (1914-2014) and a widely interpretative content (absorbing modenrity) creates a tension and an oportunity for the expansion of the way we perceive the development of Czechoslovakia architecture of the 20th century.
Is it possible to find a topic that is valid acrossall historical climates from the constructive ethos of democracy of the first republic through the munich moral fault, the german occupation, the new faith in socialism, the reality of fourty years of communist totalitarism, the wild decade following the velvet revolution, the division of Czechoslovakia, to today's global democracy?
Monitoring exceptional individuals or groups will hardly show more than fragments of incompatible uniqueness. The interpretation of architecture as an evolution if individual programs promises one hundred years of continuous story. To cover the whole range of programs is a task equaly fragmentedas utopian. Is it possible to choose? Based on what criteria?
More than 2x100 mil.m2 of residential space has been built in the past one hundred years in Czechoslovakia itself, making housing the most frequent program. Out if these 100 milion over 60% are covered by blocks of flats so we call the last 100 years of architectural development in Czechoslovakia „the story of housing“. No other architectural type deserves greater attention in all of its three historical periods: before 1945, the period of communism and the post-revolution era.
Before the World War II., apartment buildings for workers represented the development of the fifth most advanced economy in the world. New cities for the emerging mining industry were formed in the 1950's and the increasing housing standard changed most of the citites in Czechoslovakia in the 1970's. The comeback of family homes after the Velvet revolution of 1989 may conclude the story of the most common architectural type in the country.
The expostion presentes the journey from a worker's house towards collective housing of the communist era and subsequent return to family homes after 1989. The turn of the evolution spiral completed?
