Architecture and Central Planning in Czechoslovakia and State-Socialist Central Europe, 1945–1958
Faculty of Architecture, Czech Technical University in Prague, Thákurova 9, Prague 6 – Dejvice, Lecture Hall Gočár (No. 155)
The conference is organised by the Department of the Theory and History of Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture, 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’ (Programme NAKI III Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, DH23P03OVV004). The event is held under the auspices of Docomomo Czech Republic.
Thursday, 30 May 2024
8:00 Start of registration
9:00 Welcome speech by Dalibor Hlaváček, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Czech Technical University in Prague
9:15 Organisational remarks by Klára Brůhová from the conference organising committee
9:30–11:00 Session 1: Institutions I – Continuities and changes in the institutional environment of architectural practice in Central and Eastern Europe after World War II
Chair: Kimberly Elman Zarecor (Iowa State University)
Richard Anderson (University of Edinburgh)
The Sovietisation of Soviet Architecture, 1943–1963
Marija Drėmaitė (Vilnius University)
Cultural Resistance or Subversive Opportunism: Reaction of the Architectural Community to the Centralisation of Architectural Practice in Soviet-Occupied Lithuania
Stephanie Herold (Technische Universität Berlin)
Collective Architecture: Concepts of Cooperation and Organisation in the Centralised Planning System of the GDR
11:00–11:30 Coffee break
11:30–13:00 Session 2: Institutions II – Case studies
Chair: Kimberly Elman Zarecor (Iowa State University)
Marek Czapelski (University of Warsaw)
Institution for Workers’ Housing Estates 1948–1955: Producing Polish Socialist Architecture
Aleksandra Sumorok (Academy of Fine Arts Łódź)
The Instrumentalisation and Negotiability of Architectural Practices in Interior Architecture in Poland, 1949–1956
Sophie Stackmann (TU Wien)
Working Conditions for Architects’ Collectives in the GDR in the 1950s
13:00–14:00 Lunch break
14:00–15:30 Session 3: Stavoprojekt I – The establishment and functioning of the state-run architectural planning organisation in Czechoslovakia
Chair: Peter Szalay (Slovak Academy of Sciences)
Lucia M. Tóthová and Klára Ullmannová (Czech Technical University in Prague)
Organisational History of the Czechoslovak Stavoprojekt, 1948–1953
Petr Vorlík (Czech Technical University in Prague)
Stavoprojekt 1948–1953: What Was Discussed, on What Platform, and How?
Michaela Janečková (Institute of Art History, Czech Academy of Sciences)
Jiří Voženílek – Director of Stavoprojekt
15:30–16:00 Coffee break
16:00–17:20 Session 4: Stavoprojekt II – Case studies
Chair: Peter Szalay (Slovak Academy of Sciences)
Martina Jelínková (Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava)
Ateliér R: Specialised Studio for the Restoration of Monuments
Slavomíra Ferenčuhová (Czech Academy of Sciences)
Stavoprojekt and Prefabricated Wooden Housing in Socialist Czechoslovakia
Barbora Vacková and Markéta Malá (Masaryk University)
Restoration of the Village of Lidice: Architecture, Ideology, and Politics
Michaela Šmidrkalová (Czech Academy of Sciences)
The 1958 Competition for the Conceptual Design of the University of Agriculture in Prague: A Symbol of the De-Stalinisation of Czechoslovak Architecture?
Friday, 31 May 2024
10:00–11:30 Session 5: Architectural education in state-socialist Central Europe after World War II
Chair: Vítězslav Sommer (Czech Academy of Sciences)
Igor Marjanović (Rice School of Architecture) and Katerina Ruedi Ray (Bowling Green State University)
Red Worlds: Architectural Education, Centralisation and Politicisation in East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary, 1945–1958
Veronika Rollová (Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague)
Architect and/or Designer? Socialist Architectural Education, 1948–1956
Błażej Ciarkowski (University of Lodz)
‘The Best Lesson of Architecture’: How Architects Describe Their Experiences at University and in the Centralised Architectural Offices in Socialist Poland?
11:30–12:00 Coffee break
12:00–13:00 Session 6: Architectural research during Stalinism
Chair: Vítězslav Sommer (Czech Academy of Sciences)
Marcela Hanáčková (Architectural Institute in Prague and Mendel University in Brno)
‘Architectural Composition’ or an Attempt to Link Centralised Research and Architectural Practice in Czechoslovakia in the 1950s
Hubert Guzik (Czech Technical University in Prague)
Popular Opinion and Housing Development under Stalinism
13:00–14:00 Lunch break
14:00–15:30 Session 7: Cities I – Architecture and central planning from a local perspective
Chair: Dániel Kovács (Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Centre and Hungarian Museum of Architecture and Monument Protection Documentation Center)
Martina Koukalová (Prague Institute of Planning and Development)
Building Socialist Prague: Urban Planning in the 1950s
Aneta Borowik (University of Silesia in Katowice)
Two Models of Design in Post-War Poland on the Example of ‘Miastoprojekt Katowice’ and the General Construction Design Studio in Katowice
Agnieszka Tomaszewicz and Joanna Majczyk (Wrocław University of Science and Technology)
Time of the Youth! Visions of the Future by the Architects of the Municipal Design Office in Wroclaw (Poland)
15:00–15:30 Coffee break
15:30–16:20 Session 8: Cities II – Architecture and central planning from a local perspective
Chair: Dániel Kovács (Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Centre and Hungarian Museum of Architecture and Monument Protection Documentation Center)
Angelina Banković (Belgrade City Museum)
Social Housing in Yugoslavia during the First Five-Year Development Plan (1947–1951): The Example of Belgrade
Melita Čavlović (University of Zagreb)
The Separation of Architectural Form and Content Viewed Through the Lens of Centralisation and Collectivisation within the Architectural Profession in Zagreb
16:20–17:30 Closing remarks by Kimberly Elman Zarecor, Professor of Architecture in the College of Design at Iowa State University
Twenty Years of Stavoprojekt Research (And What Have We Learned?)
Final discussion
