Improvisation / The Architecture of the Eighties
an exhibition at Mimochodem Gallery, Prague, 11. 11. 2021 – 1. 12. 2021
and on the piazza of the Faculty of Architecture CTU, Prague, 1. 12. 2021 – 31. 1. 2022
The Czechoslovak building industry in normalisation-era did not offer architects any great opportunities for exploring their ideas. If within the ailing economy and in the atmosphere of a temporal vacuum architects wanted to pursue a unique vision, they had to take on the daily task of trying to break the rules and creatively rework everything they could get their hands on. They looked for loopholes in the rigid systems of prefabricated structures and façades (see Frames), modified standard components or used them in unusual places (see Transfers, Ceramics), embellished largely dull buildings with added features such as loggia, portals, and awnings (see Jäkl Profiles), got the public and artists involved in plans and projects (see Playgrounds), persuaded manufacturers, colleagues, and research institutes to engage in one-off experiments (see Computers) or in the legendary domestic practice of ‘homespun high-tech’ (see Transfers), and strove for an even partial revival of handmade and traditionally crafted architectural details and for work on a more human scale (see Bricks and Wood).
Exhibition has been organised with financial support from the Czech Ministry of Culture and the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University in Prague; with support of the Docomomo Czech Republic. It is one of the outcomes of the project ‘Architecture in the 1980s in the Czech Republic’ (DG18P02OVV013), which was conducted under the NAKI II programme of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic (principal investigator: Petr Vorlík). The exhibition and the catalogue freely tie in with the project’s first publication (a)typ (‘(A)typical’ 2019), which looked at selected buildings and phenomena that characterised the last years of the normalisation period, the second publication nepostavená (‘Unbuilt’ 2020), which showcased some oftentimes utopian and provocative architectural visions from the eighties that were never built, and the third book rozhovory (‘Interviews’ 2020). A special map and database that can be accessed at architektura80.cz have also been created to accompany the exhibition. All the outcomes of the project supplement and complete each other and together they offer inquisitive readers a rather surprising picture of a period that remains relatively overlooked and underappreciated.
Concept Petr Vorlík, Jan Zikmund
Texts Klára Brůhová, Jana Bukačová, Lenka Kužvartová, Klára Ullmannová, Veronika Vicherková, Petr Vorlík, Jan Zikmund
Translation Robin Cassling
Graphic design, typesetting, and production Jan Forejt, Jiří Klíma, Gabriel Fragner / Formall
PHOTO Preschool in the Letná district in Prague, Vladimír Štulc, Jan Vrana, 1980–1984
As the architects recall it: ‘We managed to make our case for ceramic cladding, thanks to the nearby tiled museums and ministry. But we wanted it to have some colour, and that was a problem, we had nothing to choose from. Luckily a friend who headed up Stavivo [construction supplies] obtained the blue ceramic tiles for us. (…) It was made in Chlumčany, and it was hard to come by – it was only made to mark the lane lines on the floors of pools. We managed to find enough, however, and then we had to hide it away for two years until the load-bearing structure was ready to be faced. We were worried the entire time that someone might steal it.’
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