Lecture: CZECH MODERN ARCHITECTURE in the European Context

During his lecture, Prof. Vladimír Šlapeta presented the development of Czech architecture from 1900 to the present day, which reflects the dramatic history of the last century. He emphasized the contribution of the new architecture of the cities of Prague, Brno and Baťa Zlín to the international discourse in the first half of the century, as well as the exciting stimuli created by international contacts with the centers of avant-garde movements in France, Germany, Scandinavia and Italy. He also recalled the contacts with Belgium, in which Henri van der Velde and Victor Bourgeois played a significant role, and the realization of Czechoslovak pavilions at the exhibitions in Liège 1931, Brussels 1935 and Expo Brussels 1958. In the end, the construction of the socialist era and the rapid return to Europe after the Velvet Revolution led by President Václav Havel were not omitted.

---

Vladimír Šlapeta Professor at Brno University of Technology and Prague Technical University, born and raised in Olomouc, studied architecture at Prague Technical University. After a short internship in Ostrava, he worked from 1973 to 1991 as head of the architecture department at the National Technical University of Prague. After the Velvet Revolution, he became dean of the Faculty of Architecture at Prague Technical University (1991–97 and 2003–06) and then of the Faculty of Architecture at Brno Technical University (2006–10) and was a visiting professor at Tallinn University of Technology, Münster University, the University of Ljubljana, the University of Groningen in Porto Alegre and the University of Kraków.

He completed longer study stays in Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, the USA, Finland, Slovenia and Poland. He is a member of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin, the UIA-UNESCO Commission for Architectural Education in Paris, ICOMOS and an honorary member of the Royal Society of British Architects RIBA, the American Institute of Architects AIA and the Association of German Architects BDA. He is the author or co-author of dozens of exhibitions and publications on Czech and Central European architecture.

He is the recipient of the Silver Medal of the Senate of the Czech Republic, the Brno City Award, the Bucharest Architecture Triennial Award, the Berlin Kunstpreis, the Bene merentibus Medal in Warsaw, the Grand Prix of the Community of Architecture for lifetime achievement and in 2023 he was awarded the prestigious Jean Tschumi Prize of the International Union of Architects.