Just finished teaching the summer course with the NCSU College of Design in Prague. Amazing city with 11 centuries of architecture and culture. The slideshow galleries below highlight some of the region's rich architecture.

Villa Tugendhat in Brno

Visiting Villa Tugendhat in Brno was a lifetime goal and it did not dissappoint. This is a true masterpiece of design and building craft. Designed by Mies Van Der Rohe and completed in 1930, it is such a pure expression of space and materials that it is utterly timeless

Baba Exhibition in Prague

An entire neighborhood was built in the functionalist period in Prague from 1929-1931 as part of the Baba Exhibition in Prague. All of the single family villas (and one double house) were designed by a roster of the top Czech architects of the day, Pavel Janek, Ladislav Zak, Josef Gocar and many others (and one Dutch architect, Mart Stamm). It is quite unique and amazing to see a homogenous modernist neighborhood that is over 80 years old.

The Prague Municipal House

The Prague Municipal House opened in 1912 and contains 3 restaurants and a performance hall. It is the most perfect realization of art nouveau design that I have seen. Every detail is so beautifully designed. Truly magical.

Cubist architecture in Czech Republic

Cubist architecture is unique to the Czech Republic. It is a beautiful and fascinating adaptation of the ideas of cubist painting that were emerging in 1910 or so. The folded planes of the facades create illusions of false perspective and subtle plays of light and shadow. This short-lived movement had a big impact on the development of abstraction in architecture and continues to resonate with current fascinations with folded planes in contemporary design.

Alto Adige house in Italy

This little house in Alto Adige region of Italy reminds me of our Euclid St house in the way that it takes the form of the traditional house of the region and abstracts it a bit and uses a contemporary design composition and details. This region has quite a bit more consistency in the building patterns than Oakwood has.

Of interest:

NC State Prague Institute