RIGID MODERNITY', KAREL HONZIK'S THEORY OF FUNCTIONALISM FROM 1930 TO 1950. SOURCES AND PARALLELS

• Authors: Dvorakova D.
• Languages of publication: CS

Abstracts

EN

In architectural theory, the period 1930-1950 confronted the concept of functionalism with new themes of the symbolic-representative role of architecture and an aesthetic style that catered more to the psychological needs of consumers than did formal, abstract, early functionalist architecture. The form of modern architecture was further modified by attempts to develop the regional building traditions and the existing architectural context, and by the contradictory trends that appeared in connection with the international development of the rationalisation of construction and building production. The article analyses these themes and their sources of inspiration in the texts of the Czech architect and theorist Karel Honzik (1900-1966). In the early 1930s, Honzik came to see the limits of the early theory of functionalism. Using examples from biology, he demonstrated that the basic functionalist tenet that form proceeded from the function of a building was invalid. Under the influence of surrealism, he expanded his critique of utilitarianism and the pseudo-scientific instrumental approach to architecture. After 1935, he was strongly influenced by the aesthetics and art theory of the period, in particular the aesthetic structuralism of Jan Mukarovský. In a key text from the end of the 1930s, entitled 'Fyzioplastika' (Physio-plastics), he set about analysing the causes of the growing contemporary interest in the representative qualities of architecture, with reference to local and international debates. In his insistence on the functionalist requirement of the autonomy of architecture, untainted by symbolic function, however, he showed a lack of understanding for the contemporary search for a modern monumental style. From the beginning of the 1940s, he focused intensively on the legacy of the regional architectural tradition, suppressed by the programmatic internationalism of modernism. It seems that he was reacting not only to the nationalist reactionary wave characteristic of Germany, but also to the interpretation of the Mediterranean vernacular that appeared in the work of the architect Le Corbusier. With the architect Ladislav Zák, he tried to establish the key features that would give a unified visual impact to the Czech village in the landscape. He later became acquainted with the 'folk' style of the Scandinavian architectural movement known as '‘new empiricism'. During the 1940s he unwittingly drew closer, in his theory only, to the concept of organic architecture advocated by the art historian Sigfried Giedion and elaborated by the Italian architect Bruno Zevi. In connection with the publication of 'Tvorba zivotniho slohu' (The creation of a lifestyle), another contemporary theme became prominent in Honzik's theory: the application of scientific-technological innovation in the rationalisation of building production. In this area, Honzik paid particular attention to the views of the members of the PAS group and Ladislav Zák. After 1948, Honzik did not at first accept the line of socialist realism. He gave in, however, after the failure of his attempt to establish late aestheticised functionalism as the official style of the socialist state. He did not return to the theory of modern architecture until the late 1950s. The article concludes that Honzik's theoretical analyses, in many respects too abstract and often verging on academic, were not consistently grounded in his own architectural work.

Keywords

EN

ARCHITECTURE (20TH C.); FUNCTIONALISM; HONZIK KAREL

Discipline

• ARTS_&_ARCHITECTURE: ARTS & ARCHITECTURE

• Publisher: Institute of Art History, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Umění (Art)
• Year: 2005
• Volume: 53
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 142-155
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Dvorakova D.

• D. Dvorakova, Department of Architecture and Civic Engineering, National Technical Museum, Kostelni 42, 170 78 Prague 7, Czech Republic

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

06CZAAAA01623547