The book Experimental Settlement Invalidovna is being published

Prague - On September 25, 2014, the book Experimental Housing Estate Invalidovna will be released, which examines in detail the model construction of the housing estate from 1960-1971 in Prague's Karlín. The book includes texts by leading historians of architecture, heritage conservationists, and artists, a large number of period photographs as well as contemporary color documentation, plans, and interviews with still-living co-creators of this unique phenomenon in the history of post-war architecture. The book is co-published by the National Heritage Institute.

"Not all panel housing estates can be lumped together; some, especially those from the sixties, combined economically accessible housing with a pleasant green environment and rich public space full of artworks or accessibility to services. Invalidovna was meant to function as a city within a city," says the editor of the book, art and architecture historian Ladislav Zikmund-Lender.
The book is introduced by an essay by Vladimír Czumal, who places the experimental construction in the cultural and scientific expansion of this time, which we have come to refer to as the golden sixties: "The uniqueness of the Invalidovna housing estate also lies in an attribute that is unusual among Prague's housing estates: it is a completed estate. Although the original project was not entirely realized, intensive construction concluded in 1967. (At that time, Prosek was just beginning to be built and Kobylisy was being designed.) Thanks to the urban concept, architectural solution, care for the environment, and construction process, the shapeless state of incompleteness, both functional and aesthetic, which usually plagued Prague's housing estates, did not last long. The size also plays a role, making it almost intimate compared to other Prague housing estates."
The idea for the housing estate was conceived by the Office of the Chief Architect of Prague, primarily Jiří Voženílek, Stanislav Horák, and František Šmolík. The housing estate was designed by a team of architects from the Prague Project Institute, led by Josef Polák and Vojtěch Šalda. The innovative construction solution was: "When I visited the construction site, I was on the heels of the foremen because the most important thing was precision. When those metal elements are suspended on the concrete skeleton, you have to hit the mark, or else you know where you'd end up. It was calculated down to the last detail," recalls architect Vojtěch Šalda in the book. It was meant to be exemplary in every respect. In 1964, 10 model apartments were opened to the public, the furnishings of which were designed by the Institute of Housing and Clothing Culture, which focused on contemporary housing research and conveyed foreign trends to the domestic environment. Some interiors at Invalidovna included experimental pieces of furniture that never entered ordinary production, while others were equipped with serial furniture. It was also important to incorporate artworks into public spaces, the authors of which the architects freely chose themselves. Today, the housing estate is characterized by the artworks of the trio of ceramic artists Lydie Hladíková, Děvana Mírová, and Marie Rychlíková. Marie Rychlíková adds about their collaboration: "Each of us created some sketches, ideas, and then we chose the best one, on which we then continued to work together. Our cooperation was completely conflict-free because we simply had to agree; none of us tried to impose ourselves at the expense of the others."
The book is being published as part of the research aim Surveys and Presentations of Architecture of the 19th and 20th Centuries, which is tackled by the National Heritage Institute. It is published by Zikmund Hrdec Králové, which specializes in literature on art and architecture, in cooperation with the National Heritage Institute.
The book launch will take place at the Juditina Tower bookstore on September 25, 2014, at 6:00 PM, with the participation of authors and original creators of the housing estate.

---

Ladislav Zikmund-Lender (ed.)
Experimental Housing Estate Invalidovna
Number of pages: 144
ISBN 978-80-905271-3-3
Author team: Vladimír Czumalo, Martina Flekačová, Hubert Guzik, Václav Jandáček, Daniela Karasová, Pavel Karous, Ladislav Zikmund-Lender
Photographs: Zdeněk Voženílek (archival), Jiří Zikmund (contemporary) et al.
Prague, 2014