Zlín Functionalism

What is Zlín Functionalism?

Zlín Functionalism is the interwar architecture of the Baťa shoe company in Zlín, Moravia, where factories, offices and housing shared one building system. The Czech National Heritage Institute explains that Zlín grew as a direct result of the Baťa shoe concern. The whole town therefore had a single investor, and this gave it one urban and architectural concept. The same institute describes the typical look as red brick walls combined with light, visibly exposed concrete skeletons. The wider movement has its own page, Czechoslovak Functionalism. This page covers the Baťa strand of it.

Radio Prague International calls Zlín 'the only consistently built functionalist town in Europe'. It is a characterisation by a broadcaster and not a measured finding. The same article calls a reinforced concrete frame with red brick lining low-cost, rational and functional. It compares the result to a perfectly functioning machine.

How did the company's building method work?

The method rested on repetition. The register of modern architecture records a reinforced concrete skeleton with brick infill at Partizánske (Baťovany) and Svit. Both have a structural field of 6.15 x 6.15 m. The Památkový katalog gives the same 6.15 x 6.15 m module for Building 21 in Zlín. Housing followed company models. The register notes that builders made a number of modifications even during construction, which documents the tastes of the region. At Svit the Zlín Joint-Stock Building Corporation designed the individual buildings, with the assistance of Vladimír Karfík.

What does Building 21 show about the method?

Building 21 is the administrative block on třída Tomáše Bati in Zlín. ArchiWeb names Vladimír Karfík as its architect, with Arnošt Sehnal as chief builder, and dates its completion to 1936–38. The height is 77.5 m, measured from the first floor to the roof of the air-conditioning extension. The reinforced concrete frame has a floor height of 4.50 m. The outer walls are brick and hollow brick, clad in Slavíková tiles of 6.5 x 30 cm.

Load-bearing walls appear only in the washrooms and lift areas, so standardised wood-and-iron partitions can be rearranged for different office layouts. The windows are double, with blinds between the panes, and the outer windows are mostly fixed with narrow vent openings. ArchiWeb says the designers chose air conditioning over radiator, radiant and electric heating. The main reason was air quality and temperature for a large number of employees. A window-cleaning lift runs on a track along the main cornice, about 67 m above the pavement.

Sources disagree on the number of floors. The Památkový katalog counts sixteen floors above one basement. ArchiWeb counts 17 floors, because it includes the air-conditioning extension and the water reservoirs on the 17th floor. The catalogue entry also says the glazed canopy over the south entrance, added in 2004 with the number 21, has no heritage protection. The entry as read does not state a listing for the building itself.

How was Baťovany (Partizánske) planned?

Baťovany, today Partizánske in the Trenčín Region, followed the principles of an ideal industrial town for between 5,000 and 15,000 residents. Jiří Voženílek (1909–1986) drew the regulatory plan. He began working for the Baťa company in Zlín on 20 April 1937. The industrial zone sits on the northern edge of the town, close to the main road and the railway. The plan divided the functions of the town into relatively independent sections. The residential districts branch off the central square, Námestie práce (Square of Labour).

The register dates implementation to 1938–1943 and the first manufacturing hall, the so-called triple-decker, to 1939. Karfík designed the Roman Catholic church, built 1942–1949, which the register calls the chief landmark at the south-eastern edge of the square. F. Kučera designed the Social Centre (1939–1941) and M. Drofa the Baťa industrial schools.

How is Baťovany protected?

The register describes Partizánske as a well-preserved and highly liveable instance of an original Baťa garden city. It calls the urban concept and architecture an important component of cultural heritage. It names no formal listing. A study by STU Bratislava says Partizánske has no concept of functional-territory or object-focused monument protection for the Baťa heritage. The authors also point to weak dialogue about how to preserve or rebuild the buildings. The dialogue involves the monument authority, experts, the town council, civic groups and residents.

What happened at Svit?

Svit lies near Batizovce in the Prešov Region. The register places the complex in the Baťa company's manufacturing programme for 1934, with an original plan by F. L. Gahura and construction in 1935–1942. The factory made synthetic fibres, in a three-tract skeleton with cylindrical columns, later square pillars, and brick infill, on a 6.15 x 6.15 m span. A greenbelt separates the factory from the residential area. Housing ranges from single-family houses and duplex and quad houses to four-storey apartment blocks. The greenbelt also holds a school, apprenticeship training and a social centre.

Sources disagree on when Svit became a town. The register says the settlement became the independent town of Svit in 1946. The Slovak public administration portal says the settlement became an independent municipality on 4 June 1946. It says the municipality received town status on 30 May 1962.

Who designed the Baťa buildings in the sources?

The sources name a small group of architects. The table lists each name only with the work a source attributes to the person.

How is Zlín Functionalism different from Czechoslovak Functionalism?

Both belong to the same modernist family and use reinforced concrete and rational planning. The difference the sources support is the client. Zlín had one investor and one urban concept, while the wider movement is described under Czechoslovak Functionalism. For buildings in Bratislava, see Bratislava Functionalism. For the wider movement, see functionalism.

What should owners of Baťa-era buildings check today?

Check the heritage status of the building and of its area before any change. In Slovakia, Act No. 49/2002 Z. z. sets out what the heritage fund contains. Under § 2(1) it holds movable and immovable things declared national cultural monuments, plus heritage reserves and heritage zones. Under § 17(1) a heritage zone is a territory that can be marked out topographically. It has a historic settlement layout, a cultural landscape with heritage values, or archaeological finds. Zlín is in Czechia, where a municipal heritage zone was declared in 1990, so Czech rules apply there.

The Czech National Heritage Institute studied what damages Zlín's Baťa buildings. Red brick facades are sensitive to later alterations, and later changes reduced the architectural quality of many buildings. Most ceramic cladding lowers the value of a building, but cladding that faithfully imitates the look of brick does not. The institute also notes that low hedges between houses add to the value of the heritage zone. Tall hedges or solid fences replace them badly. Ask the heritage authority before you change a facade, windows, roof or structure of a protected building.