NEW YORK, NY.- The Center for Architecture is presenting the exhibition Prague Functionalism: Tradition and Contemporary Echoes.

Though Prague is most famous for its Baroque and Art Nouveau buildings, modern architecture became highly prestigious in interwar Czechoslovakia. The architectural avant-garde, increasingly supported by the middle class, designed a broad range of structures in the 1920s and 1930s, from tenement and family houses, to administrative buildings, schools, and even churches. “Prague was one of the most important centers of modern architecture and design in Europe during the interwar period, comparable with the Bauhaus in Germany or the architecture of the Dutch De Stijl group,” said exhibition curator Zdeněk Lukeš. “World famous architects like Adolf Loos and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe took part in projects, along with many Czechoslovak colleagues including Jaromír Krejcar, Kamil Roškot, Oldřich Tyl, Adolf Benš, and Bedřich Feuerstein.”

Following the communist putsch in 1948, the style fell into misuse; however, the Functionalist tradition has been continuously resuscitated, modified, and adapted by contemporary Czech architects. Today, the avant-garde’s legacy places an emphasis on austerity, elementary shapes, and a respect for structural logic.

Prague Functionalism showcases architecture from the interwar period and contemporary projects inspired by these designs. The exhibition presents photographs and drawings of buildings both built and unbuilt, with texts by architectural scholars and researchers. It also includes models of historic and contemporary buildings and several reproductions of Jindřich Halabala furniture designs manufactured exclusively by Modernista.

Originally presented at Jaroslav Fragner Gallery in Prague, this is Prague Functionalism’s US premiere and the first major exhibition at the Center for Architecture to focus on Eastern European design.