Museum concepts designed by architects and artists: Evolution of the sight on the museum since its formation until present days
By Alexander Schleicher
As museum concepts we consider unrealised visions of museums or realised museums which brought exceptional ideas influencing the directions of museum architecture. Museum concepts have accompanied the museum since its begins or more precisely emerged even earlier when museum wasn’t a profiled autonomous type of institution and building yet and when partial problems leading to museum formation had been solved. First museum concepts by Ch. L. Sturm, E. L. Boullée a J. N. L. Durand aimed to define the museum as a new type of building and were looking for its form – functional structure and its expression. These concepts foretold the appearance of museum architecture for a long time ahead. Arrival of the 20th century brought occurring of critical theories of the traditionally formed museum. Critical theories of the museum in connection with new state of society, new sight on the cosmos and new state of architecture brought modern concepts of the museum of the first half of the 20th century by Le Corbusier, L. Mies van der Rohe and also a realised museum MoMA by P. L. Goodwin and E. D. Stone applying new sight on the museum which in a fundamental way influenced the direction of museum in the second half of the 20th century. The second half of the 20th century is also the period when the number of museum increased in an unprecedented way, with an extremely numerous group of museums of modern and contemporary art. Therefore the question – what do the artists, who more and more intensely influence the exhibition space design and whose demands are often overlooked by the architects, think of the museum of contemporary art? We can consider the museum concepts as an abstraction of the current state and indication of museums’ direction in future period. The examples of museum concepts show us the essence of ideas on what is a museum; keep track of the diversity of approaches characteristic especially for the contemporary museum, but also the common unifying motives of the museum since its formation until present days.
A century of town planning of the town of Košice
By Ján Sekan
At the turn of the 20th century, only the most important cities of our region had a general zoning plan. The zoning plans of smaller cities started to develop in the inter-war period, but only after the World War II the previously marginal discipline of town planning started to boom. Many plans made during this period that were neither published nor archived in museums are getting lost. By loosing these, we are also loosing the opportunity to learn about the history of the development of our cities. Since Košice was one of the most important cities of both the Austro – Hungarian Empire and Czechoslovakia, the planning started relatively soon, in the 19th century. During this time the methodology of planning has not yet been set. Later, in the anticipation of the end of the World War I, an ambitious development plan was created, which was supposed to guide the city’s expected development. This gave rise to a competitive atmosphere between teams of architects, resulting in a regulation plan in the year 1921. The complexity of the plan, however, did not allow for its realization during the time of the 1st Czechoslovak Republic. Instead, the city was being built on an ad hoc basis. The regulation plans from the inter-war period are lost. The first post-war territorial plan was designed by Bohuslav Fuchs, a well known Czechoslovak architect. Fuchs developed a concept for a new residential area in the western periphery of the city, which became a guideline for the city’s development in the following 20 years. The modern methods employed by Fuchs, however, were not compatible with the ideologies of the emerging communist regime. Therefore, a new zoning plan was employed, which fit the principles of communist totalitarian aesthetic. Modern methods of urban planning reestablished only in the period of de-stalinization. In 1961 a zoning plan was adopted, the realization of which gave Košice its contemporary image. In the 60s and 70s a period of rapid growth was caused by the establishment of a gigantic ironworks on the periphery of the city, doubling the population of Košice as well. The next territorial plan from the mid-70s changed the previously compact city into an agglomeration. The fall of communism, however, did not allow for the objectives of the plan to be met. This research work aims to gather relevant zoning plans of Košice, archival materials, literature and press records to recreate the story of the development of Košice in the 20th century.
Barracks as important element of the development of Slovak cities
By Laura Pastoreková
This paper explains the importance of barrack objects and campuses and their role in forming the urban structure of the city. Construction of army barracks, as we know them today in the area of recent Slovakia, had begun in the period of wars against Turks. They were initially built as castle fortifications, which have been later transformed into the modern war cities with their own urbanism and strict building composition, serving the needs of the army. In the first half of the 19th century, barracks were still covering just a small part of the army accommodation and the rests of the soldiers were hosted by civil families. Army was trying to solve this problem with construction of the simple wooden barracks, situated on the periphery. In the year 1866 Habsburgs lost the PrussianAustrian war, which caused important changes in the policy of the monarchy and led to the establishment of the national service two years later. This event activated a huge competition among the cities to obtain the biggest numbers of soldiers and build as many barracks as possible. One of the reasons of their interest in this type of buildings was the financial support guaranteed from the state, derived from the amount of soldiers located inside the city. On the other hand, army was bringing to the cities a great income of money in the form of the food, construction and other supply contracts. Relation between the army and the city was convenient also for the soldiers in terms of better supply and bigger possibilities for their cultural and social life. In the second half of the 19th century barracks started to be more specialized. Simple wooden houses were undergoing reconstructions and their wooden parts were replaced by brick walls, other existing objects were modernized and extended. Except that, new types of buildings were created. Buildings started to be divided according to their functions, which were also projected in their specific shape. New form and development of this specific type of architecture influenced also the shape of the city structure. Castle fortifications, defying the city boundaries, were replaced by campuses, which on the contrary extended the urban structure. Nowadays, the termination of military service and its transformation to the professional army few years ago reduced an amount of buildings used by the army. Especially barrack campuses, designed for permanent military accommodation, became in a short time just a heaps of neglected shelters. However, only understanding how great was their role in our history will help us to uncover how much of values and potential for future city development is hidden in this type of architecture.
Industrial heritage in Austria: Monument conservation, research and education
By Nina Bartošová
Protection of industrial heritage is difficult even in the countries that have not undergone such a complex political-economic and social change, with an impact on ownership status and historical continuity as we are to witness in Slovakia. In the recurring situations, when we are confronted with the inability of the society to safeguard valuable examples of our industrial past, we tend to look for answers abroad, to culturally more advanced countries that seem to achieve better success in this task. Although it is not reasonable to expect a simple solution, it is valuable to learn about the background and the context in other countries that augment the chance to conserve industrial heritage. From the historical and geopolitical aspect, it is suitable to study neighbouring countries with whom we share part of the history, and who – in spite of the differences – can help us to find solutions to specific problems. This article is aimed to describe situation in one of Slovakia’s direct neighbours – Austria. It focuses on several aspects: history of monument conservation in connection to industrial heritage, research of industrial heritage, legislation, promotion and education. The last part is dedicated to a comparison between Austria and Slovakia. The factual information in the study comes largely from published works by two Austrian experts on industrial archaeology: Manfred Wehdorn (1942) and Gerhard A. Stadler (1956), who are both closely connected to the Institute of History of Art, Building Archaeology and Restoration (Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Bauforschung und Denkmalpflege) of the Vienna University of Technology that holds a very important place in the history of industrial archaeology in Austria; other findings were collected during a research stay at the above mentioned institute (February – July 2014). Presented findings show that although the situation of industrial heritage in Austria can be considered more favourable than in Slovakia, a simplified conclusion can be misleading, and not helpful in the task to find references for amendment of conservation initiatives. Lots of the success that we can observe in Austria is rooted in the history of monument preservation that has been very early supported at an institutional level. However, historical development slowed down after Second World War, and at the time when countries such as Great Britain witnessed rising interest in industrial archaeology, the department for technical monuments in the Austrian Federal Monuments Office was facing a decline caused by lack of competent staff. While today, we can see many parallels between Austria and Slovakia – common theoretical background in monument conservation, similarities in the legislation and institutional level – there are certain areas, as education, where Austria can stand for an example.
Visions of the city in science fiction movies – the relevance of their exploration, possible approaches and an existence of e-topia
By Alexandra Dubovcová
The connection of the cinema and architecture is certainly not new, neither in the form of mutual interdisciplinary cooperation nor as an object of theoretical research. What may seem new or very little significant is the attention paid to the sci-fi cinema in architectural theory. Architects often toy with the visions of ideal cities or the future cities. So the architectural theory is interwoven with various imaginary cities, which have more or less been documented. In this paper, the attention is paid to city visions, the city visions of the sci-fi cinema. The intention is to bring the sci-fi city visions closer to the attention of specialists and the public, and to defend film media as one of the new forms used for the presentation of current futuristic visions. The paper offers a basic overview of the publications which deal with issues of sci-fi city visions. Three most general approaches are introduced to the research of sci-fi city visions and deal with the phenomenon of e-topia. The contribution is part of larger research of dissertation on the City in the film – vision, utopia, futurism which aims to promote the argumentation of the relevancy of the sci-fi city visions in films and their position in architectural theory. The research is conducted as a poststructuralist debate with the interdisciplinary background of architecture, urbanism, cinematography, philosophy and sociology.
The theme of movement in architecture
By Ondrej Kurek
The paper Architecture in Movement/Movement in Architecture attempts to analyse the presence of the term movement in the architectural theory and practice. Its aim is to confront the two clearly contradictory entities, movement and architecture. Movement represented by dynamic actions and architecture, on the other hand, by stability. Despite of their contrastive character both components need each other which we will try to prove with the help of the knowledge gained from the historic and contemporary architectural theory. The paper is divided into two parts – architecture in movement and movement in architecture. The first part named Architecture in Movement focuses on movement in the terms related to evolution of architecture as an art discipline. The reasons and motivation behind the idea of integrating movement into architecture in various periods will be implied and followed by the description of means and tools used by architects to achieve the integration. This part also contains a study on all the possible determinants enabling the architecture motion. In the second part of the paper, Movement in Architecture, we summarise the results of the methods identified in the first part. Architecture working with the element of movement is constantly fighting with the paradox that in order to achieve its fundamental purpose of providing a shelter, the elimination of movement is required, i.e. of all the moving forces involved. Only then when the above conditions are fulfilled architecture inlays back the movement into the now statically stabilised environment. The result we get in the end after the previously mentioned analysis is a kind of guide to the topic. All the particles related to movement in architecture sorted to tables will enable us an easier orientation in the subject. We will try to prove that the movement in architecture is not a new theme. It’s an organic part already present in architecture despite of the contradiction linked with it.
Residential zone intensification – the Development of housing estates spatial distribution in the East European context
By Pavlína Kolcunová
The regeneration of mass housing estates is currently a frequently discussed topic; the attention of architects and urban planners is usually devoted to the exemplary projects from the Netherlands, Germany and France, however, the proportion of housing estates on the total housing stock does not exceed 10% in the countries of the former western block. The prefabricated panel housing in the territories of the former Eastern bloc represent 50% of the entire housing stock and significantly determines the functioning of the city as a whole. The article therefore focuses on the evaluation of the accessibility of the main functional components of the city (work, recreation, amenities) in the context of our living environment and housing units, so called micro-zones, in Eastern Europe. The introduction part discusses the current state of urban planning and particularly the persistent tendency of functional zoning. The mismatch between the real and administratively defined space is illustrated on the background of Lefebvre’s philosophy about the city and contemporary planning strategies. In order to assess the effectiveness of the residential structures, particularly with regard to functional mix, capacities of the environment are described including various concepts of measuring density and accessibility. The comparison of different situational contexts and accessibilities represents the fundamental chapter of the article. Each case can trace common themes – namely the transformation of mono-functional zone into the multi-functional one, form of (self)organization of residential structures, the question of pedestrian accessibility and reducing the demand for individual car transportation. A certain disparity of understanding the problem of mass housing revitalization leads to reducing the concepts to individual regeneration of prefabricated buildings without a link to deeper system processes. The study summarizes the basic interpretation of the spatial differentiation of housing estate, which are a result of the fundamental socio-economic changes in territory.
Independent cultural centres
By Peter Lényi
After the change of political regime in Slovakia in the year 1989 conditions for formation of new spaces for culture changed too. While before the state power was main initiator, after that the leadership was taken by private independent groups. Most often used way of dealing with problemacy of own space became adaptation of empty industrial/sport/ transport buildings. The study describes this phenomenom on the example of theatre, which represents the other spaces for culture (galeries, concert halls) as pars pro toto. During the leaving of buildings with intentional typologies usually synthesis of multiple art forms occurs and creates completely new institution – independent cultural centre. The art forms which take place there take its characteristics for their own – they are low-budget, they search for new forms of expression, they question dogmas and they always try to improve their quality. Relationship to audience is very close, centres serve as important spots in local art and neigbourhood community. The independent cultural centres scene in Europe began its existence in 1970, currently there is 56 cultural centres connected in the Trans Europe Halles network. Slovak scene exists since the first years of 21st century, there is 16 members in the Antena network at the momment.
Housing estates’ population intensification as the way of their sustainability?
By Karol Görner
Nowadays, when we are aware of the need of effective management of natural resources, the demand to build cities with a regard to their sustainability comes to the fore. Our attention should be focused on the effective use of the existing urban structure. One of the basic principles of such development is the process of intensification. A particular problem becomes our housing estates from the era of mass housing. Even after about a quarter century, housing estates are forming a significant proportion of our cities. On the one hand they are connected with a lot of problems, but on the other hand they have a lot of reserves for their correction, where the process of intensification can play a crucial role. However, there are different views on intensification. The current process of intensification of existing housing estates is made by spontaneity and urban-architectural misconception focused mainly on the economic profit. In this context, a number of questions appear: Is it appropriate to intensify housing estates and if so, in which positions? How to regulate the process of intensification? The aim of this paper is to summarize the existing knowledge of the intensification in the context of the issue of housing estates. The paper defines intensification, characterizes its basis and principles. The second part focuses on the issues of housing estates, their development and their problems, with emphasis on Slovak realities. It is also shows basic approaches to housing estates in our country and abroad. The last part of the work focuses on the intensification as a possible approach to solving problems of our housing estates and their valorization. Finally, we conclude that the key task will be to decide which values of our housing estates we should protect in the current state and which parts should be used in more effective way.