Building-Blocks-Like Living Rooms: Unit Furniture in Czechoslovakia

book chapter

English

After the 1948 communist coup d’état and the consequent nationalisation of large- and small-scale production, a network was established between the big furniture producers and wood processing cooperatives. Among the biggest producers of that time were Jitona Soběslav, Interiér Praha and Kovona Lysá nad Labem (the latter of which specialised in metal-framed furniture); the UP factories (UP stands for United Applied Arts) in Rousínov and Bučovice; TON Bystřice pod Hostýnem; ZNZ Bratislava; Mier (Peace) Topoľčany, Tatra Pravenec and Nový Domov (New Home) Spišská Nová Ves. All of these producers were managed from the headquarters in Brno of the so-called ‘professional directorate of the Nábytkářský průmysl (Furniture industry)’. Apart from these, there were also centres for the development of the furniture industry in Brno and in Bratislava.2 Hikor Písek and Dřevotvar Jablonné nad Orlicí were important in the sector of cooperative furniture producers but there were dozens more.

design history; furniture design; collective design; socialist modernism; furniture

ZIKMUND-LENDER, L.

1. 2. 2019

The Czech Center Bucharest

Bucharest

978-973-0-29125-4

Czechoslovak Home: Objects and Items Found in Romania

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