An initiative of the
Zlín - Model Town of Modernism
19.11.2009 - 21.02.2010, Architekturmuseum der TU München in der Pinakothek der Moderne
The rise of the small town Zlín in the east of the Czech Republic into the centre of the biggest European shoe manufacturer Baťa is a unique economic and social, but also architectural phenomenon. Zlín is a “model town of Modernism“, since many architectural and social ideals that politicians, entrepreneurs and architects propagated as visionary after World War I had been realized there. Thus the town, which Le Corbusier described as a “shining phenomenon”, became a kind of pilgrimage site for all kinds of proponents of progress in the 1930s.
At the turn of the century, the small place in which Tomáš Baťa had founded a shoe factory together with his brother and sister in 1894, had 3,000 inhabitants, steadily developing to 43,000 by 1938. Thrilled by the ideas and production methods of the most successful car manufacturer of the time, Henry Ford, and the founder of the science of management, Frederick W. Taylor, the entrepreneurs Tomáš and Jan Antonin Baťa had the small place systematically developed into a kind of huge laboratory for communal life and work, establishing a system in which the entire town and all its inhabitants were only serving one single purpose – increasing shoe production. Not only the division of labour, timekeeping and conveyor belts, but also company-owned social facilities such as nurseries, schools and a hospital as well as a department store, a sports club and a large cinema, were geared towards achieving this target.
Architecture was to also contribute to forming new and more productive people. The town is divided into zones assigned to the areas of working, living, leisure time activities and traffic – a separation of functions corresponding to the key concepts of modern town building that were later propagated in the “Charta of Athens”. Decisively influenced by the architects František L. Gahura and Vladimír Karfík, almost all public buildings were developed on a planning grid of 6.15 by 6.15 metres, a uniform measurement which literally served as a standardization of work and life. Starting out from Zlín, Baťa had factories and towns erected in other countries and continents as a smaller version of Zlín using modern architecture to convey a company-related identity and modernity.
The exhibition adapted parts of the Prague show “The Baťa Phenomenon” (National Gallery in Prague, spring 2009) but was restructured for Munich. By means of models, plans, objects, photographs and films the architectural development, the linkage of cultural and social life in Zlín as well as the worldwide circulation of Baťa’s ideas were presented and critically reflected on. A separate area, specifically compiled for the Munich show, dealt extensively with Le Corbusier’s planning concepts for Baťa – hardly known in even expert circles (expansion of Zlín, a standard plan for the French shoe shops, the French satellite town Hellocourt and the Baťa pavilion for the World Fair in Paris in 1937). Some of the original drawings of the Fondation Le Corbusier were shown for the first time. The World Fair pavilion – hitherto only known as plans far – was reconstructed as a large model, conveying a tangible spatial experience of the design.
Two relevant publications were brought out by JOVIS Verlag at the time of the exhibition:
“Zlín – Modellstadt der Moderne”, edited by Winfried Nerdinger, is the catalogue to the exhibition with essays by renowned historians of architecture.
“A Utopia of Modernity : Zlín”, edited by Katrin Klingan in cooperation with Kerstin Gust, is an anthology of contributions by internationally renowned authors on the phenomenon of Zlín, exploring the present and future development of the city.
An exhibition by the Architekturmuseum der TU Munich, the National Gallery in Prague and the Regional Gallery of Fine Arts in Zlín.
The exhibition is part of “A Utopia of Modernity: Zlín”, a project by Zipp - German-Czech Cultural Projects, an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation.
Accompanying program | Photographs | Catalogue | Project partners
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