The Tomá? Ba?a Memorial, Zlín Building Restoration, Czech Republic Architecture
The Tomá? Ba?a Memorial in Zlín
Building Modernisation in Czech Republic ? renovation design by Petr V?ete?ka / TRANSAT architekti
22 Jul 2019
The Tomá? Ba?a Memorial
Architect of the renovation: Petr V?ete?ka / TRANSAT architekti
Location: Zlín Region, Czech Republic
The Tomá? Ba?a Memorial

The building by Franti?ek Lýdie Gahura, opened one year after the death of Tomá? Ba?a, is the most valuable monument of the Zlín constructivism and the highlight of the so-called ?Ba?a architecture? phenomenon. At the first glance the idea for the monument is simple: an empty prism placed on a visible spot above the town, on the central axis of the ascending park space, made up of several modules of the Zlín 6.15 x 6.15 m frame and clad only with cathedral glass. Inside, only the ill-fated Junkers F 13 aircraft in which Tomá? Ba?a died in 1932.
Gahura reduced the monument to three basic materials of Zlín architecture ? concrete, steel and glass that were supposed to, together with the building?s composition, express the unique attributes of Tomá? Ba?a: generosity, clarity, aspiration, optimism, simplicity, honesty and truth.

The execution of the standardised frame as a single column hall and a three-aisled space at the same time, variable height of the space and dispersed natural light brought the stripped-down Zlín constructivism closer to sacral buildings of the ancient and medieval t...