Rostislav Švácha: The Architecture of Czech Settlements

Professor Rostislav Švácha is an internationally recognized historian and theorist of architecture. Last year, he advocated for the inclusion of the Máj department store, designed by Miroslav Masák, John Eisler, and Martin Rajniš of the SIAL studio, on the list of cultural monuments. Recently, he proposed to protect another Prague department store—the Kotva of the Machonins. According to Švácha, it "represents Czech architecture of the first half of the 70s at a high level." However, his interest is not limited to a few notable solitaires. He has long been engaged in the topic of housing estate architecture, particularly in the 70s. The authors of the exhibition Husák's 3+1 on housing during normalization approached him to present his view on housing estates and their development. Based on detailed knowledge of the period's construction production, he highlights the negatives and positives of housing estate construction, without which a qualitative shift in the development of many of our towns and villages is inconceivable.

Rostislav Švácha was born on January 16, 1952, in Prague. In 1976, he graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy at Palacký University in Olomouc. From 1977 to 1984, he worked as an editor at the publisher Odeon. In 1985, he became a research worker at the Institute of Art History of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, where he is still employed today. He further serves as a lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and Palacký University in Olomouc. Among other things, he is the author of the books From Modernity to Functionalism, Le Corbusier, Karel Teige, Angled, Square and Curved Shapes, Czech Architecture and its Severity. Fifty Buildings 1989-2004.

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