The National Gallery Prague presents a new permanent exhibition 1956–1989: Architecture for all
Name “Architecture for all” is a cipher that sums up the ethos of post-WWII societal recovery and transformation, as well as the title of the book Karel Honzík from 1956. One of the main theoreticians of post-war architecture Karel Honzík considers architecture to be “a system of interrelated forms that reflect the life of human society in a certain historical situation”. These forms are both material – including cities, buildings, interiors, but also dishes, clothes, books, paintings and sculptures, i.e. a wide range of objects or things surrounding a person – and life, which include actions, relationships and consciousness. Architects thus design a complex human environment that co-creates a contemporary lifestyle.
In the perspective of lifestyle and the transformation of society in the second half of the 20th century in Europe, we are not talking about iron, but about nylon curtains. Since 1956 at the latest, socialism has embarked on the same path of satisfying consumer needs as its Western counterpart. The main trends of late modernity, which were the industrialization of construction, the development of technology and communication, the transformation of the economy towards the tertiary sector of trade and services, form the main axis of the exposition. This development took place in accordance with wider pan-European developments. However, it is important to take into account the specifics of socialist modernity and the socialist style of life as unique identities and cultural phenomena, the creation of which is actively influenced by male and female architects, male and female designers in Czechoslovakia.
In its ideal form, the socialist lifestyle as a program wanted modern design, which derives from rational consumption, serves collective rather than individual interests, does not unilaterally support consumerism, understands human needs as a changing social phenomenon, and directs consumers to the development of cultural interests. However, it is necessary to add that the initially positively intended theory was only applied to a certain extent in practice. From the 1970s, basic needs seemed to have been fulfilled in Czechoslovakia – through social achievements such as the right to employment, health care, the expansion of housing offers and consumer demands – between 1969-1979 the number of passenger cars tripled to 2.1 million, the number of telephone sets doubled to 3 million and the number of television sets rose to 4 million. Nevertheless, the drawn “nylon curtain” revealed unsatisfied desires for more luxurious and superior goods. The relatively solvent population stood in queues not only for Western goods in PZO Tuzex branches, but also for exotic types of food or electronics. The impossibility to travel or otherwise meaningfully invest funds then became one of the causes of the fall of socialism.
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Post-war architecture co-shaped the contemporary lifestyle. An exhibition of the most interesting 40 buildings of this period by authors such as they were Věra and Vladimír Machonin, Karel Prager, Zdeněk Kuna trio Cubr–Hrubý–Pokornýas well as important collectives Sial Liberec, Spojprojekt Praha. In addition to essential Prague projects, such as Main station, New Stage of the National Theatre, Strojimport or Žižkov TV Towerparticipating in the exhibition with a regional overlap must therefore not be missed technical hotel in Liberec AND TV station Ještěd, brutalist department store Prior Pardubice or, for example, appreciated housing estate Brno-Lesná.
New permanent exhibition 1956–1989: Architecture for All can be seen from 7/12 2022 in the Trade Fair Palace of the National Gallery Prague.