Bata cities

13. November 2013 - 05. January 2014

 13. November 2013 - 5th January 2014

Curators: Markéta Březovská and Rostislav Koryčánek
Curator of the exhibition in Zlín: Ladislava Horňáková

Exposition: The building No. 14 in the Zlín factory area

Opened daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., except for Monday, on Thursday opened to 8 p.m.

The exhibition, originally prepared by the Bauhaus foundation, presents the international satellite housing estates of the Bata company. 

In Zlin, in the Czech Republic, Bata built a first company town according to modernist architectural precepts, testing the idea of a model town that could be efficiently replicated. These Bata cities, soon to be exported all over the world, all combined the same components: architecture, urban planning, management, social engineering and communication. The geopolitical context of colonialism as well as growing international trade and labour division encouraged the company’s expansion. Soon enough the Bata empire formed an international corporate network of 80 Bata cities as places of production as well as a modern way of life.

The exhibition introduces three Bata satellite towns, Batanagar (India), East Tilbury (Great Britain) and Möhlin (Switzerland). 

The photographs from this exhibition can be found on this page (the Czech version of www).