Architecture and Central Planning in Czechoslovakia and State-Socialist Central Europe, 1945–1958

An International Conference – Call for Abstracts

Faculty of Architecture, Czech Technical University in Prague

30 May – 1 June 2024

The conference is organised by the Department of the Theory and History of Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University in Prague as part of the grant project Stavoprojekt 1948–1953: The Collectivisation of Architectural Practice and Its Imprint on the Memory of the Czech Landscape and Towns (Program NAKI III Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, DH23P03OVV004). The event is held under the auspices of Docomomo Czech Republic.

Czechoslovak Stavoprojekt was established in 1948 as a state-run architectural planning organisation. Its creation in many respects marked the fulfilment of a vision of the left-wing avant-garde, but it was also a response to contemporary changes in society and the economy and to the need for the extensive regeneration of the economy, buildings, and infrastructure impacted by war. Stavoprojekt’s work encompassed a broad range of architectural and urban-planning tasks, from infrastructure, industrial buildings, housing, and public buildings to heritage conservation, typification, urban design, and regional planning. Centralisation had far-reaching impacts on Czechoslovak architecture and had transformative effects on the local landscape and settlements that went on for decades.

The conference will focus on the genesis, functioning, and contexts of the work of Stavoprojekt in Czechoslovakia, but it will also look at the subject of central planning in other countries of central and eastern Europe and beyond. The aim of the conference is to create a platform for the discussion of methodological approaches to the study of the history of architecture and the architectural profession in the period from the end of the second world war to the close of the 1950s, when prefabricated construction practice gained great headway in the state-socialist countries of Europe.

Conference topics:

The political and socioeconomic context surrounding the founding and functioning of state-run architectural offices and organisations

• defining the political tasks of architecture in Europe’s state-socialist countries after the second world war
• post-war regeneration in the context of the bipolar division of Europe
• population movement, changes in the social structure, the collectivisation of agriculture, and industrialisation as determinants of regional planning and architecture
• continuities and discontinuities in the collectivised practice of architecture stretching back to the 1920s–30s and forward to the 1960s–80s
• institutional forms of architectural planning, designing, and research (not just) in state-socialist countries; the Sovietisation of architectural practice in state-socialist countries
• the connection between architectural planning, practice, and research and the reorganisation of the field of civil engineering and the building industry

Centralised architectural practice, the functioning of institutions, and alternatives

• the practical aspects of the production of building documentation its distribution, and subsequent construction
• the creative responsibility of architects, the phenomenon of ‘master studios’
• the working conditions of employees of centralised architectural offices and organisations
• freelance architects in European state-socialist countries in the first fifteen post-war years
• institutionalised research and theory in the fields of architecture and urban planning
• construction professions and construction workers as players in development

The effects of centralisation on architectural design and the building industry

• the reaction of the architectural community to the centralisation of architectural practice, reflections in theory, historiography, and memoirs
• discussions on the typification, prefabrication, and industrialisation of architecture and the building industry
• the reaction of the system of education in architecture to the centralisation of planning, architectural design, and research
• the effects on architecture, urban planning, and the landscape, on the production of residential developments, public buildings, and industrial and engineering structures, regional planning, the public space, historical heritage, interior design, and exhibition-making

Please submit your application and abstract by 12 January 2024 at the following e‑mail address: stavoprojekt@fa.cvut.cz.

We welcome abstracts in English, Czech, and Slovak. English is the preferred language of the conference. Individual presentations should be no longer than 20 minutes.

Selected papers, following an agreement and depending on their focus, will be published in 2025–2027 in books as outcome of the project Stavoprojekt 1948–1953: The Collectivisation of Architectural Practice and Its Imprint on the Memory of the Czech Landscape and Towns (NAKI III).

Timetable:

• October 2023 = Call for abstracts
• 12 January 2024 = Submission of abstracts
• 16 February 2024 = Notification to authors + agreement on the presentation language
• 15 April 2024 = Publication of the final conference programme
• 15 April 2024 = Registration opens
• 30 May – 1 June 2024 = conference

Registration fees:

• Standard: 1,000 CZK
• Students: 500 CZK
• Presenting participants: free

Organising committee:

Klára Brůhová, Hubert Guzik, Petr Vorlík, Klára Ullmannová

Scientific committee:

Klára Brůhová, Marek Czapelski, Hubert Guzik, Dániel Kovács, Vít Sommer, Peter Szalay, Rostislav Švácha, Petr Vorlík, Kimberly Elman Zarecor

Call and application form to download: