Ladislav Žák: Apartment Report

This column will reproduce images of relatively good pieces of household furniture that are mass-produced. If this publication is to have a purpose, it will be necessary to attempt a critical assessment of the advantages and possible defects and to draw attention to improvement possibilities. This can benefit both the manufacturer and the audience more than simply publishing images or one-sided promotional praise, which is common in advertisements. The material will be published without any preconceived plan or program, thus as contributions from manufacturers can be received. Sorting and overviews will only be possible once more material has been collected — moreover, the production of household items is constantly changing and evolving, so a closed overview is never really possible. Therefore, the purpose of this column is to inform the audience about new and lesser-known older items of high-quality industrial and artisanal production of household furniture, to help the audience make the right selection of these items, to strengthen manufacturers’ efforts for improvement, to introduce new good products into production, and to abandon the production of items that do not correspond to today's life.
Gottwald's garden furniture made of metal and wood (designed by architect H. Kučerová-Záveská), although already well-known, remains the best product of its kind produced serially in our country. Its advantage is that nothing is unnecessarily invented here, previous principles of folding chairs are thought through in a production-wise, practically, and aesthetically mature way. The folding table, whose shape arises from purpose (with as few supports on the circumference as possible), is a more independent invention. The advantage of the entire collection is that it is not an artistic-industrial creation (in the bad sense), but rather, on the contrary, a simple and pure industrial product. It serves as an example of proper cooperation between the designer and industry, demonstrating a way how a whole series of already established household items can be brought into the group of quality products through purposeful and reasonable corrections.

The furniture produced by UP workshops in Brno. Advantages: Furniture made from independent elements that can be assembled and supplemented with additional parts at will. Libraries can be assembled into corners as well as on flat walls, likewise, the ottoman consists of three independent stools that can be arranged into various structures, supplemented with others, or attached as footrests to chairs. The UP chair (designed by architect Halabala) is a developed product. Its double-sided springing (forward and backward) and simple clever construction rank it among the best inventions of this kind that have emerged in our country. The UP table is also a completely modern piece of furniture, lightweight, simple, and sturdy. — Essentially, UP workshops' furniture demonstrates a number of practical, functional, and formal values that are the result of constant thought and improvement, the work of many good specialists. However, under strict scrutiny, the factory's endeavor to make the furniture appealing to mainstream taste is problematic, using "beautiful" woods and upholstery fabrics, as well as less tasteful decorative accessories for that purpose. This appeal, which undermines the good essence of the products, is explained and excused by commercial reasons. Given UP workshops' current level of popularity and reliability, improved results in this direction may be achieved through further education and promotion.