Architect Adolf Benš has received a monograph

Architect Adolf Benš has finally received a monograph. Its publication was made possible by the students of his studio at the Academy of Art, Architecture and Design, where he taught since 1945 as part of a fundamental renewal of the institute's teaching staff. The text was taken on by leading expert in the history of Czechoslovak architecture of the 20th century, Vladimír Šlapeta. He successfully placed Benš's work within the context of the period when our architecture held a prominent position in the world through the development and elaboration of the concept of functionalism. The author effectively brought the text to life by incorporating the architect's justifications for individual intentions and characterizations of the nature of the buildings he designed. Additionally, the publication includes several of Benš's articles, in which he justified his approach to his projects.

Benš's wide range of work as a designer deserves admiration, from residential construction to urban planning considerations, from the realization of family homes in Prague, Bratislava, and other cities to buildings for schools and healthcare, and even to proposals for technically demanding transportation solutions (his article on the Parisian bridges deserves attention in comparison). Notable is Benš's interest in apartment design issues, which became relevant in the program of the left avant-garde. Social engagement runs throughout Benš's work, reflected in his sensitive approach to urban corners, which he subordinated to the interests of the urban whole and expanded with contributions that met similar demands on a global scale. His participation in competitive proposals for a city gallery at Klárov (in connection with the Wallenstein Riding School), in the competition for galleries on Kampa, and other effective contributions to urban plans of developing cities deserves admiration (sometimes even sentimental longing). An integral part of his activities became the educational program carried out in the studio at the Academy of Art, Architecture and Design after 1945 (the reason for the architect's premature departure from the place he loved remains shyly unanswered).

The reviewed monograph on Adolf Benš reminds us how the fundamental question of architecture as both a technique and an art has lost none of its urgency. His technical thinking was always sanctified by artistic imagination, as evidenced by the high quality of the architect's drawings. One can sense from them how inspirational the phenomena of air and light were for him, which he incorporated into his projects. Looking back at his work, two of his truly architectural monuments still evoke admiration to this day. These are the building of the Electrical Enterprises in Holešovice (from the mid-30s) and Prague-Ruzyně Airport, built at the end of interwar Czechoslovakia. Modest functionality is balanced with elegance, which marked the architect's entire body of work. Adolf Benš inscribed, with all his personal modesty, the signs of the era in the face of the beloved city he lived in and shaped.