Mail from the Czech Chamber of Architects 2008: Miroslav Baše

Photo: Ludvík Hradílek

Prof. Ing. arch. Miroslav BAŠE

Our nomination of Professor Miroslav Baše for the Honor of the Czech Chamber of Architects was based on the wording of the statute of this extraordinary award. Architect Baše was a figure who notably contributed to modern Czech architecture through his morality and work. His broad outlook and interests extended beyond the fields of architecture and urbanism, and his belief in the priority of public matters over personal interests led him to permanent social engagement. His firm civic stance was evident not only during both tense periods of our contemporary history but also during the passive normalization of the seventies and eighties. In the spring of 1968, he became a representative of the Club of Engaged Non-Party Members and remained a prominent figure until the police dissolution of the Union of Czech Architects (1971). He did not align himself with the new, government-established Union of Architects. Instead, he prepared new wording for the opposition authorship law with Dr. Brabec, participated in non-public seminars and the formulation of expert opinions from non-conformist architects, joined the activities of the Circle of Independent Intelligentsia, and was one of the founding members of the New Group of Jindřich Chalupecký. In January 1969, he completed a seminar on urbanism in Salzburg, Austria (on the basis of which he received a scholarship for postgraduate study at Wayne State University in Detroit), and in 1973 he developed a regional development plan for Karachi, Pakistan, and three years later a similar plan for Colombo, Sri Lanka. He lectured at ICCROM (UNESCO) in Rome (1979–1983), at Antioch College in Ohio, at Saarinen School in Cranbrook, in Canadian Toronto, and in Bologna, Italy (1991). He participated in the Europa Nostra meetings not only in Prague but also in London (1972). In December 1989, with proverbial zeal, he became involved in the activities of the Civic Forum, which sought a common language between conservationists and architects. He collaborated in negotiations and seminars of The World Monuments Fund in Prague, Olomouc, and Slovakia. In 1991, he was one of the main organizers and participants of the exceptionally significant international conference Prague – The Future of the Historical City. His publishing activity was also remarkable; he began contributing to our and foreign professional periodicals in the seventies and continued until 2008.
Professor Miroslav Baše was born on September 16, 1933, in Michalovce, Slovakia. He studied at the Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering at the Czech Technical University in Prague (1951–1956), where he worked as a research assistant for Professor Stefan, and completed postgraduate study at Wayne State University in Detroit (1969–1970). He began his professional practice in the residential buildings studio of the State Typification Institute in Prague (1957–1959), continued at the Regional Project Institute in Plzeň, in the Mariánské Lázně center (1959–1966), moved to Jiří Gočár's studio in Prague (1966–1968), and then joined the State Institute for the Reconstruction of Historical Towns and Objects (1968–1991). During his twenty-three years at this institute, he became head of the studio (1970), head of the research center (1984), and director of the urban planning department (1988). From 1986 to 1988, he served as the head of the urban planning department at the Kuwait Engineering Office. At the beginning of 1992, he established a private practice. After November 1989, he was authorized by the Czech Chamber of Architects, where he worked in a working group for heritage care. He was the vice-chairman of the Society for Rural Renewal, and from 1986 to 1992 he was a member of the National Committee of ICOMOS – UNESCO.
He also worked as an educator at the Faculty of Architecture at the Czech Technical University in Prague. He began his pedagogical career in 1993 when he became the head of the Institute of Urbanism. He sought to restore the connection between the study and practice, focusing on assisting smaller municipalities with projects for the development of Lány, Mukařov, Černilov, Úvaly, and others, and worked with foreign students on studies such as The Mouth of the Loire, The Crisis of the Catalan Peasantry, or the urban plan for Limonest, a village near Lyon, to name a few. He collaborated with the Ministry for Regional Development and, in cooperation with ABF, initiated a student competition titled Building for the Countryside. He qualified in 1995 and on April 19, 2001, he was appointed a full professor by the President of the Republic. From 2003 to 2006, he was entrusted with the role of Deputy Dean for Science and Research.

Miroslav Baše: Prague Heritage Reserve

In his list of works, it is possible to begin with competitions. In 1958, he received an award in a competition for the campus of the Agriculture University in Prague, and he also received an award the following year in a competition for the complex of the teaching hospital in Motol. In 1960, he won second prize in a public competition for a cultural and social center in Františkovy Lázně. Information about his projects and realizations would take up several pages. Some of the significant ones included the project for a hospital in Ethiopia (1958), a study of an oncology center for Thessaloniki, Greece (1958), a study of the pavilion above Rudolf's Spring in Mariánské Lázně (1962), a land-use plan for Mariánské Lázně-Úšovice (1965), the realization of row houses in Prague-Krč (1967) and in Opava-Kateřinky (1967), the reconstruction of heritage buildings U Pěti korun and U Zlaté lilie in Prague, a study for the regeneration of the Gothic Hrádek near Litoměřice (1971), a project for a new theater for Svitavy (1972), a construction-technical survey of the historic center of Tábor (1971), a land-use forecast for the Prague Heritage Reserve (1982), a land-use plan for the center of Spišská Nová Ves (1983), an urban study for the modernization of buildings in the Vojtěška district of Prague (1984), development of a concept for the center of Kuwait (1986), a project for the emir's residence Amiri Diwan (1986), a commercial and residential complex on Soor Street in Kuwait (1986), a revitalization plan for the Sharq Sief Area (1988), a study for the preservation of historical monuments in Kuwait (1988), and an urban plan for Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. After November 1989, he continued in practice, for example, with an urban study of the area around Spiš Castle, the land-use plan for Mníšek pod Brdy, a proposal for modifications to F. X. Svoboda Square in Mníšek pod Brdy, the reconstruction of a building in Senovážné Square in Prague, the land-use plan for the Petrská district, a study of Prague's historical core for the European Union, and many other studies and projects.
Miroslav Baše passed away on February 2 of last year; in September, he would have turned seventy-five. The Board of the Czech Chamber of Architects honored his life and work by awarding him the Honor for 2008. We, who were asked by the board to vote among fifteen nominees, unanimously recommended his award. We are convinced that his personality integrated all the prerequisites for which the Honor of the Czech Chamber of Architects was established. He was a non-conformist personality, a man of clear opinion and firm stance. I knew Mr. Professor from the tense times at the end of the sixties. He was filled with life experiences, and therefore capable of irony and self-irony. He was a friend with whom we understood each other without words, with whom we laughed at the same absurdities, a buddy who humbled me with his nobility.

The Czech Chamber of Architects annually awards the Honor to significant personalities in the field – architects, theorists, or educators who have made a mark not only with their creations but also with their moral approach in the history of modern Czech architecture.

Nomination for the Honor of ČKA 2008
Miroslav Baše, Jan Bočan, Markéta Cajthamlová, Jindřich Freiwald, Ladislav Konopka, Otakar Kuča, Věra Machoninová, Alois Mikuškovic, Jindřich Malátek, Vlado Milunić, Emil Přikryl, Viktor Rudiš, Ivan Ruller, Pavel Štecha, Rostislav Švácha.
The jury decided in the next round to focus more deeply on the lives and works of these creators: Miroslav Baše, Jindřich Malátek, and Emil Přikryl.

Expert Jury of the Honor of ČKA 2008
The Board of ČKA annually recommends an expert jury composed of outstanding Czech designing architects and theorists of architecture, who evaluate one of the nominated personalities to whom the Czech Chamber of Architects will award the Honor.
The commission met in and deliberated in the composition: Ing. arch. Zdeněk Fránek, Mgr. Rostislav Koryčánek - chairman, Ing. arch. Jan Línek, Prof. Ing. arch. Miroslav Masák, Ing. arch. Petr Všetečka

History of the award of the Honor by ČKA
The Board of ČKA decided to establish the tradition of the Honor in 2000 with the aim of recognizing outstanding personalities in the field of architecture. Given the large number of outstanding architects who did not receive any significant recognition for their work and life stances during the previous regime, this award was, in previous years, primarily awarded in memoriam; in 2006, 2007, and 2008 it was awarded to living personalities. This year, the award will again be given in memoriam. Nominations can be submitted by all members of ČKA, educators, theorists and historians of architecture, architects' societies, schools, and faculties of architecture in the Czech Republic.

Laureates:
2000 – Petr Vaďura, Bedřich Rozehnal, Ladislav Žák (in memoriam)
2001 – Vít Obrtel, Otto Rothmayer, Oldřich Stefan, Zdeněk Vávra (in memoriam)
2002 – Josef Havlíček (in memoriam)
2003 – Josef Polášek (in memoriam)
2004 – Honor was not awarded
2005 – Karel Hubáček
2006 – Miroslav Masák
2007 – Alena Šrámková

Ceremonial Ceremony
The Honor of ČKA 2008 in the form of a sculpture by the sculptor Richard Kočí and an honorary diploma will be presented by the chair of the Czech Chamber of Architects at a ceremonial event in the Jaroslav Fragner Gallery to Mrs. Olga Baše on May 6, 2009, at 6 p.m.

Exhibition
The exhibition CITY-SUBURBIA-COUNTRYSIDE at the Jaroslav Fragner Gallery (May 7 – 22, 2009, opening on May 6, 2009, at 6 p.m.) will primarily present the topic of Land-use Forecasts and Urban Studies of the Prague Heritage Reserve, which Baše worked on in 1978-83 and 1992-94 and can be considered his most significant projects. Other two important themes that Baše engaged in, which will be presented more extensively at the exhibition, were suburbia and wide-ranging activities associated with the countryside.
The author of the concept of the exhibition and accompanying catalog is Ing. arch. Petr Všetečka.

Catalog
On the occasion of the award of the Honor of ČKA 2008 and the exhibition at the Jaroslav Fragner Gallery, the Czech Chamber of Architects will publish a catalog dedicated to the work of Miroslav Baše: CITY-SUBURBIA-COUNTRYSIDE. The seventy-page color publication will present significant texts from lectures and publications, studies, original photographs, drawings, graphic prints, land-use plans, and projects from nearly fifty years of his creative work. The materials will be introduced by the essay by Jacques Derrida "Generation (of a) City." Graphic processing of the catalog: Marius Corradini, SIDE2.


Introductory text in the catalog

The creators of the publication and exhibition dedicated to the renaissance figure of Miroslav Baše find his obsession with questions fascinating. Most of his work is invisible; however, we can reference it. When we ask those in the know, they never omit the human character of Miroslav Baše. We thus try to depict him (at least in the form of reflections at the end of the book).
The thematic division into three sections expressed in the title of the book and the exhibition City – Suburbia – Countryside is, to some extent, a chronology of Baše's creative life. Each of the three themes takes place against a different background, but always touches on a subject undervalued by society, which at the right time was not recognized in its relational complexity. While Miroslav Baše dedicated himself completely pioneeringly to industrial monuments in the Ostrava area in the late sixties and, ten years later, described the issue of the Prague Heritage Reserve exceptionally coherently, then in the nineties and at the beginning of the new millennium, he chose an even broader scope of rural renewal combined with journalistic and educational activities.
The Land-use Forecast for the Prague Heritage Reserve, Baše's magnum opus, provided a previously unknown comprehensive view of many professions on the structure and value of the historic city, while also affirming its stratification and ambiguity despite the times, the necessity of understanding contradictions rather than eliminating them (in the words of J. Derrida: "The city must remain open to the fact that it knows that it does not yet know what it will become…"). From today’s perspective, the forecast is a valuable contemporary record of thinking about the city, applied to the unique Prague ensemble. Therefore, it receives the most space in the book, and the conference Prague – The Future of the Historic City, which Baše significantly contributed to, is also recalled through four texts.
The theme of suburbia, which is what lies between the city and the countryside, he experienced first hand during his internship in Detroit in 1969-1970. This theme, whose value relativity has now caught up with America, led Baše to broader reflections on the difference between American and European settlement traditions. He dedicated a number of theoretical works to suburbanization (in the book, we include a summarizing text "The Process of Suburbanization" from 2004).
Similarly, the comprehensive view he applied to the Prague Heritage Reserve led Baše to more general questions pertaining to rural areas, contained in the excellent text "Creativity in a New Situation" from 2003, perhaps the most thought-provoking Czech text on the topic of regionalism in architecture, and in his critical reflection on the Program for Village Renewal delivered in Nečtiny in 2007 (both texts are also included in the book).
In all three cases, he proved the ability to pinpoint areas on the brink of collapse that we are not yet aware of. Baše understands the issues of urbanism and the countryside primarily in economic, demographic, ownership, and social dimensions, without which the questions of the form of settlements and landscapes cannot be satisfactorily answered. With great dedication, he helps the countryside find its lost self-confidence mainly through practical cooperation with village mayors and by awakening students' interest in this topic.
Miroslav Baše was not an orthodox regulator or conservator of cities or landscapes; his view was organic, and his strength lay in posing questions, gathering and analyzing relevant data, understanding contradictions, and argumentation. He strongly emphasized the need for rules of the game in the sense of a found urban principle, but it was not a technocratic perspective. An example might be his view on the intention to build a skyscraper in Pankrác, where instead of the height of the building, he debates its content: "... I am convinced that the true counterpoint to Prague Castle could only be a substantially significant building ... and that formal, architectural reflection of a certain type of administrative work can no longer stand as the highest symbols of the place, the country. Prague should show more decisiveness in this situation and seek the placement of a European or global institution, thus aligning itself with other European metropolises..." (Flight Over Pankrác Plain, Architekt 7/2001).
He realistically perceived the mutual alienation of heritage care and new architectural creation as a bilateral deformation caused by communism since he was aware that, in an open society, a long-nurtured culture of creative dialogue is valued over bared teeth. From the rich graphic archive of the architect, the book includes drawings and graphics created within the interiors of Prague's churches and photographs related to the examined topics. Indeed, there was much to choose from.