New Prague exhibition explores the hidden architecture behind Czechia's cottage culture
Czechs are famous for their love of cottages, cabins and weekend retreats. But while this tradition has often been explored as a social phenomenon, far less attention has been paid to the architecture behind it. A new exhibition at Prague’s Museum of Applied Arts, called The Modern Cottage: An Architectural Phenomenon, aims to change that, tracing the evolution of cottage architecture from the interwar period to the end of socialism. I sat down with its curator, architectural historian Adam Štěch, to find out more.
Why did you feel the architectural side of the cottage phenomenon deserved more attention?
"Once, a very prominent Czech architectural historian, Rostislav Švácha, wrote that the topic of cottages, summer houses and cabins is very attractive for a whole generation of architectural historians, but also a little tricky to explore because there are not many theoretical texts written on the subject. Most of the existing texts are practical guides and manuals explaining how to build a cottage, rather than offering a broader philosophical or theoretical understanding of the phenomenon.
"As an architectural historian and explorer, my method is to see things, to see houses and experience them. I thought that if there are not many theoretical texts or archival materials, that might actually be an opportunity for me, because my method is to go to places and find forgotten or hidden buildings, in this case cottages.
"For the past few years, I have been visiting famous cottage areas around Prague, Brno and the Czech mountains, looking at the landscape, looking at the cottages and trying to find examples that show how architects translated this phenomenon into specific buildings."
The exhibition is called The Modern Cottage, but it also features holiday homes and weekend houses. What is the difference between these categories?
"The terminology is also a little difficult because there are many related architectural typologies. We have chalets, which are Alpine cottages in the mountains. We have log cabins from the United States or Scandinavia. There are many different types of buildings that were originally intended for use in nature, often connected to agriculture, and which later, at the beginning of the 20th century, began to be used for recreation.
"Architects generally described the cottage or weekend house as the simplest form of a small house in nature, sometimes consisting of only one room and intended mainly for short weekend stays.
"The cottage was often the only escape from this socialist lifestyle. People built a lot of cottages themselves, and the architects who were attempting to design beautiful cottages in the 1930s would probably be very surprised by how the landscape changed."
"A cottage is usually somewhat larger. It can have two floors and offer more space, making it suitable for longer stays.
"And then there is the summer house, which is already closer to a bourgeois summer villa. It can often be used during autumn and sometimes even in winter.
"These are the three main categories. If architects wanted to focus on the cottage as a form of minimum dwelling in nature, they would concentrate on the smaller examples. The larger summer houses of the 1930s were generally built for the middle and upper-middle classes."
The exhibition covers roughly the time between the early 1930s all the way to the end of the Socialist era. Why were the 1930s such a key period in the development of this type of architecture?
"It was connected to the general emancipation of society during the 1930s, not only in Czechoslovakia but across Europe. Czechoslovakia had a strong industrial base, society was becoming wealthier and people had more free time that they could spend in nature.
"In the 1920s there was the phenomenon of tramping, when mainly working-class people went into the forests and built simple cottages themselves. They were inspired by ideas connected with nineteenth-century America and the exploration of nature.
"The cottage was also a topic for avant-garde architects. It was a kind of minimum dwelling in nature, something connected to the ideas of radical modernism."
"In the 1930s a new wave of weekend visitors emerged. These were middle-class and upper-middle-class people who began building small summer houses and cottages around Prague and elsewhere.
"Architecturally, this development was closely connected to modernism. Modern architecture embraced new materials and technologies and aimed to improve people's lives. The most discussed topic within modernism was social housing, but among avant-garde architects the cottage also became important as a form of minimum dwelling in nature. It fitted well with the radical and, in some cases, left-leaning ideals of modern architecture."
One thing that struck me while going through the exhibition was how many leading architects designed cottages and weekend houses. Were these commissions considered as important as designing homes for permanent living?
"Yes, I would say they were. There were many competitions and exhibitions during the 1930s that promoted cottages as a new architectural typology. Architects could experiment with wood, prefabrication and standardisation.
"Avant-garde architects found the subject attractive because there was a real demand for these buildings. They were also concerned that if architects did not design cottages, people would simply build them themselves and potentially damage the natural environment.
"Architects tried to think more contextually about where cottages should be placed and what materials should be used so that they fitted into the landscape. It was not the most important architectural topic of the interwar period, but it was certainly a significant one."
How did cottage architecture develop during the 1930s?
"At the beginning of the decade there was a strong emphasis on typisation. The idea was to create prefabricated cottages that could be mass-produced, transported to a site and assembled quickly and cheaply.
"Many companies offered these cottages. You could buy a standardised design that was produced serially and either assemble it yourself or have it assembled. There were also books and manuals containing designs that could easily be replicated.
"Towards the end of the 1930s, however, we see more cottages and summer houses inspired by romanticism. Architects began using heavier materials such as stone, along with wood and more organic surfaces. The buildings started to look more traditional.
"We can also see the influence of organic architecture. If you are building in nature, you naturally want to create a strong relationship between the house and its surroundings. Architects therefore chose materials and forms that suited the environment.
"As a result, most of the cottages that were actually built belonged more to this organic and romantic tradition."
One section of the exhibition is devoted to kinetic and lighting art pioneer Zdeněk Pešánek. Who was he and why does he occupy such a prominent place in the exhibition?
"One reason is that Pešánek was closely connected to the Museum of Applied Arts during the war. It was one of the few places where he could work because the Nazis considered him a degenerate artist due to his avant-garde approach. His connection to the museum was therefore very strong.
"The second reason is that he built two cottages in Louňovice near Prague in the late 1930s. One was for himself and the other for Bedřich Kaizl, a Prague politician. The cottages stood right next to each other.
"They are very important because they are among the few realised examples of Pešánek’s architecture. He produced many designs, but very little was actually built.
"When I began researching them, I discovered that Pešánek’s own cottage had already been demolished. However, I found the Kajzl cottage, which still existed, although it had been heavily altered.
"Later I met the artist and sculptor Štěpán Kus, who told me that he had managed to save elements from the Kajzl cottage when its owner wanted to demolish it as well. He salvaged parts of the building, which gave us a wonderful opportunity to create a tribute to Pešánek.
"We did not have enough space to reconstruct the cottage fully, but we wanted to evoke it. The result combines my architectural research with Štěpán Kus’s conceptual artistic approach. It is a site-specific installation made from original elements of the cottage, and I am very happy it became part of the exhibition."
How many of these 1930s cottages still survive in their original form?
"I really do not know. It is very difficult to determine because our sources are mainly period magazines, books and direct observation in the field. You can only uncover part of the story.
"There are for sure so many other amazing cottages still around, but I just don't know about them. For me, the exhibition is not the end of the project. I will go around Czechoslovakia until I am able to find more examples."
"What keeps nagging me is the certainty that there are many other remarkable cottages that still exist and that I simply have not discovered yet.
"Some buildings we know about have disappeared. For example, a beautiful cottage by the Brno architect Bohuslav Fuchs was destroyed by fire.
"For me, this exhibition is not the end of the project. I will continue travelling around the Czech Republic and Slovakia, searching for more examples.
"I am somewhat obsessed with placing references next to one another, creating an atlas of examples that shows how a single architectural typology, the cottage or summer house, can be interpreted in many different ways."
What happened to this trend after the communist takeover?
"In general, individual architecture virtually disappeared in the 1950s, which was a great loss because Czechoslovakia had been exceptionally good at producing beautiful villas, family houses and cottages.
"At the same time, even in the late 1930s and 1940s, many architects had already begun shifting their attention from cottages to the broader landscape. A good example is Ladislav Žák, who stopped designing houses and instead wrote his influential book Inhabited Landscape.
"In that book he argued that cottages were becoming a problem because there were no proper regulations. People could build whatever they wanted, and this threatened the beauty of the landscape. As a result, many architects became more interested in nature conservation than in designing cottages.
"This issue became even more pronounced during the 1960s. Under communism, the cottage was often the only escape from everyday socialist life, and many people built their own structures. Unfortunately, many of these cottages were not particularly attractive.
"The architects who had tried to create high-quality cottages in the 1930s would probably have been surprised by the way the landscape changed, and I do not think they would have been very happy about it.
"As for good cottage architecture during the socialist period, it was mainly limited to individual projects designed by architects for themselves or for friends. Such examples are relatively rare, although I am convinced that many more remain to be discovered."
Yet the cottage featured on the exhibition poster was built during the socialist era, wasn't it?
"Yes. One of the most important architectural experts on cottages was Jaroslav Vaculík. He had worked for Le Corbusier in France during the 1940s and later returned to Czechoslovakia.
"He developed a series of cottages called V1, V2, V3 and so on. His aim was to produce them industrially and make them accessible to ordinary people.
"Unfortunately, the idea was never realised on a large scale. Only a few examples were built.
"They are very interesting and, I would say, quite charming. The cottages stand on metal and concrete pillars and have beautiful detailing. They are elegant and clearly influenced by Le Corbusier and Jean Prouvé, as well as French modernism more generally.
"But during the socialist era nobody wanted to manufacture them on a larger scale, so only a handful were ever completed."
What do these cottages reveal about Czech society in the different periods covered by the exhibition?
"I think they show that we are a little inward-looking. We like having a small place in nature, a kind of private universe centred on our cottage.
"It is also connected to work. People go to their cottages and spend the weekend mowing the lawn, repairing things and constantly improving something.
"Cottages exist in countries such as Sweden and Switzerland as well, but I think people there may be more inclined simply to relax. They sit in a chair, read a book and enjoy the surroundings.
"Czechs always seem to find something that still needs to be done, repaired or created at the cottage.
"I think that is a very typical Czech characteristic."