modernism; american architecture

This photo oozes the optimism of US mid-century modernism. Richard Spencer's modernist house in Santa Monica. The famous Julian Shulman photograph with Spencer and his then wife Josephine Caruso standing either side of the fireplace.

The Accidental Archivist: George Smart and USModernist

9th December 2020

By greyscape

@Barbican_City_of_London

Bohuslav Fuchs’, Czech architect whose life was

Bohuslav Fuchs’, Czech architect whose life was so impacted by the winds of political changes that swept across 20th Century Czechoslovakia.

This is his 1936 Petrákova Vila in Brno’s Pisárky district, a home for friends and business partners with whom he co-owned AKA, an interior design company. It’s considered an outstanding example of Functionalism.

Fuchs (1895-1972) is acknowledged as one of the most highly thought of Czechoslovakian architects of the interwar period but spent the last 25 years of his life stifled by the political leadership of his country.

In the 1920a he worked for Brno’s building authority rising to Chief Urban Architect. Fuchs, was also a member of the city’s ‘Group of Fine Artists’. In the late 1920s he chose to focus solely on his architectural practice which he’d already been operating from a villa he designed and lived in. Contributing to Brno’s 1928 Werkbund Exhibition with Josef Štěpánek, their ‘triple house’ was highly thought of and his practice thrived. Who knows how his career would have developed had Czechoslovakia not been invaded. Post-war with the Communists in power the practice closed and Fuchs became Dean of the Architecture faculty of Brno TU.

However, along with many artists and designers, he fell out of favour with the Soviet authorities, the country was in the grip of Social Realism, and Fuchs whose name was so strongly associated with Modernism, was dismissed from his post in 1960. He continued working albeit at a much less prominent level.

In 1968 during the Prague Spring he was honoured as a ‘National Artist’. This short-lived period stopped abruptly when Soviet tanks rolled into Prague in August ‘68. After the Warsaw Pact invasion, Fuchs again suffered, the Communist ‘normalisation’ made sure to undo all the efforts of the Prague Spring activists and Fuchs survived by accepting small scale projects. In that sense he said better than others who were forced into exile.

Today his legacy is fully acknowledged and amongst his many impressive buildings is the Avion Hotel, Jakub Deml house, Zeman's cafe and the Třeština power plant.

Image Martin Strachoň / Wikimedia Commons CC BY SA 3.0 @bazi_cz

Kaunas Modernism at its finest, it may have been a

Kaunas Modernism at its finest, it may have been a long and difficult journey but today Iljinienė House has the recognition and protection it rightfully deserves.

This was built as a family home for railway engineer Jurgis and his wife Aleksandra Iljinas. Designed by renowned engineer and architect Arnas Funkas in 1933 on a plot sold to the family by their neighbour Dr Pranas Gudavičius. From the beginning it was designed as a family home with an opportunity to create income by combining it with flats to rent out.

After WW1, Kaunas (Kovno) became the ‘temporary capital’ of Lithuania with Vilna now in Polish hands. Modernist planners and architects spearheaded the city’s extraordinary growth between 1920 and 1939. Here was a new nation that has shaken off the shackles of the collapsed Russian Empire determined to be a best in class example of a modernist city, 1200 new buildings were completed. That all halted in 1939 with Lithuania in turmoil. On 20 March 1939, Nazi Germany's foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop presented an oral ultimatum to the foreign minister of Lithuania to return the ‘Memel Territory’, which which had been given to Lithuania after Germany’s defeat in WW1 or the Wehrmacht would invade Lithuania and the temporary capital city of Kaunas would be bombed. There is of course a lot more to tell about what happened and about the second ultimatum. The country was under Soviet occupation from June 1940 for a year when the Germans occupied it. Much has been written about the city’s large Jewish population of 35-40,000 people (one in four people in the city) who were murdered, amongst them were architects, engineers and designers. Only 2000 citizens returned after the war.

The story was somewhat different for the Lljinas family who left the city during the Soviet occupation and ’fled to Germany’. The unoccupied building was nationalised.

Post war, Lithuania was a Soviet satellite state and the building became home to various state organisations eventually belonging to the Fire Brigade.

Today the house has been returned to former glory - after falling into complete disrepair. Image Vilensija CC BY SA 3:0

A honeycomb like interior. A surprising interior g

A honeycomb like interior. A surprising interior given this is church by the Bundesautobahn 45 in Germany. Park up your lorry and enter a very different space, the exterior is said to be based on a series of triangular shapes and its stark purity is emphasised by an entirely white exterior. Award winning design by @schneiderschumacher Image with thanks to @nils_koenning long read post on Greyscape.com

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