Brno Architecture Manual - A Guide to Architecture 1900–1918

The publication Brno Architecture Manual: A Guide to Architecture 1900–1918 is conceived as a topographic guide consisting of 184 objects of various types – important public buildings (including religious and commercial buildings), private rental housing, villas and some of the first examples of housing built by building cooperatives or associations. These objects (along with period and recent photographs) have been ordered into ten walking trails and seven short excursions to more distant sites. The tours come with modern and historical maps that clearly show the development of the

given location, information about public transport access and the starting point of the tour, and a short introduction. For each tour, the buildings are organized with a view a logical walking order and ease of access via public transport. The book reflects the city’s transformation into a modern metropolis at the start of the 20th century, with a particular focus on the building boom in the city centre, where – after passionate public debate – some 200 buildings were demolished after

1896 in order to make way for modern tenements and commercial buildings. The largest urban renewal project in the history of the Czech lands significantly changed the face of the historic city centre. At the same time, showcase public building were erected on the site of the Baroque fortifications just outside the old town, which had already been torn down in the middle of the 19th century, new residential districts were developed in a broader ring around the city, and villa districts began to sprout in selected attractive localities. Immediately adjacent settlements such as the towns

of Královo Pole and Husovice and the village of Žabovřesky also experienced much new development, and in 1919 they were incorporated into Greater Brno. The buildings included in this book represent the diverse range of architectural styles of the era, ranging from eclecticism and Art Nouveau (including specific variants thereof inspired by folk architecture) all the way to examples of Cubist modernism. At the end of the book, there are short profiles of the architects who were active

during this period (Dušan Jurkovič, Bohumír Čermák, Franz Pawlu, Ferdinand Hrach, Leopold Bauer, Hubert Gessner, Maxmilian Monter, Friedrich Schmeer, Alexander Wielmans von Monteforte etc.). For most of the architects, these are the first monographic texts ever to be published about them. The full biographies are available on the BAM website, as are contemporary and (often hitherto unknown) period photographs and project documentation and a list of primary sources and secondary literature. The guide includes a typological index, an index of architects and a basic bibliography.

Editor: Lucie Valdhansová A Short Episode on the Long Century: Michal Konečný Authors of the texts and of the architects’ profiles: Pavla Cenková, Dagmar Černoušková, Aleš Filip, Aleš Homola, Ladislav Jackson, Petra Hlaváčková, Jindřich Chatrný, Martin Koplík, Jana Kořínková, Karolína Králiková, Matěj Kruntorád, Veronika Lukešová, Šárka Svobodová, Tereza Štěpánová, Lucie Valdhansová, Jana Vránová Graphic design: 20YY Designers Photography: Tomáš Souček, Michaela Dvořáková, Vladimír Kiva Novotný, Libor Teplý Translation: Stephan von Pohl, Mark Worthington, Alena Všetečková Production: Veronika Jičínská Number of pages: 368 pages