The exhibition in Zlín maps the century-long history of the Zlín company Centroprojekt

Zlín – The activities of the Zlín-based project and engineering supply company Centroprojekt are mapped by an exhibition at the company’s headquarters in the center of Zlín. The exhibition Centroprojekt 1925-2025 was prepared by the aArchitektura association and the Research Center for Industrial Heritage of the Faculty of Architecture at ČVUT on the occasion of the centenary of the founding of the project company, whose history dates back to the Baťa company. The exhibition will run until the end of October and is complemented by lectures and guided walks, said the exhibition curator Lucie Šmardová to ČTK.

The basis of the exhibition is an archive documenting the activities of the organization, changes in the design process, and daily life in the company, which had nearly 700 employees at the end of the 1980s. "Among the most interesting exhibits are newly digitized original plans of the administrative building 21 by architect Vladimír Karfík and competition proposals for the Centroprojekt administrative building," Šmardová stated.

The exhibition presents the history of the organization and its design activities focused mainly on the leather, footwear, glass, ceramics, and textile industries. The projects were intended not only for Czechoslovakia but also for dozens of countries around the world. The main focus of the exhibition is the period from the 1950s to the 1980s when Centroprojekt was one of the most significant design institutes in the republic.

The establishment of the company is linked to the construction department of the Baťa company. In 1925, a separate group was founded within it, where the most important architects of interwar Zlín worked, such as František Lýdie Gahura, Vladimír Karfík, Miroslav Drofa, Jiří Voženílek, and Vladimír Kubečka. The structure of the construction department, where, among other things, the Zlín construction standard of 6.15 by 6.15 meters was developed, changed over time. In addition to designing factories, public buildings, and family homes, one of the tasks became the regulatory plans for both Czechoslovak and foreign satellites of the Baťa company.

After World War II, architects helped to quickly restore the factory complex and housing stock of Zlín by designing large-capacity apartment buildings in the eastern part of the city. In 1958, the State Institute for the Design of Consumer Industry Enterprises Centroprojekt was established in Gottwaldov. The activities and specialization of the institute gradually expanded, and the number of employees grew.

The 1990s and the following decade brought new challenges and a different spectrum of contracts that the company prepared for both Czech and foreign clientele, Šmardová stated. Centroprojekt Group currently employs eighty people and is part of the Agrofert holding.