Archive of Architecture and Civil Engineering
The research room of the NTM Archive and Architecture and Civil Engineering Archive is open Tuesday - Wednesday 9:00 - 17:00
email: badatelna@ntm.cz
tel.: +420 220 399 201
The publicly accessible Archive of Architecture and Civil Engineering contains over 200 files documenting the development of (not only) Czech architecture of the 19th and 20th century. In addition to the estates of famous Czech architects (J. Schulz, J. Zítek., J. Kotěra, J. Gočár, P. Janák) or builders (B. Hlava, V. A. Lanna), it also includes several thematic collections concerning the history of architecture and Civil Engineering (collections of the National Theatre, Straka Academy and the Rudolfinum, among others). The archive offer diverse archive files for study purposes: drawings, sketches, studies, plans, photographs, personal documents, etc.
The Technical Museum’s collection was first opened to the public in September 1910 at the Schwarzenberg Palace in the Hradčany quarter of Prague. This included exhibits from the Civil Engineering field. The architecture exhibit wasn’t opened until seven years later, in 1917. During the German occupation, the architecture and Civil Engineering collections were moved to the Invalidovna building in Karlín.
The systematic care of the collections and their more methodical recording began only in 1942 when, thanks to the efforts of art historian Zdeněk Wirth and architect Ladislav Machoň, the Archive of Architectural Work was founded. The record cards from that time remain preserved as do many of the archiving principles.
Although most of the NTM’s collection was moved in the early 1950s to the new functionalist building at Letná in Prague, the collections of architecture and Civil Engineering remained in the confined, and climatically and technologically less ideal spaces of Invalidovna. Moreover, the spaces for the growing collections were markedly reduced starting in the mid 1950s and through the forced ceding of part of the building to the Military Historical Institute. Despite the inconvenient facilities, the archive served the public and for exhibition purposes.
The 2002 flood damaged over 80% of the materials stored at the Invalidovna building in Karlín. Most of the valuable archive documents were saved and are now stored in high-quality climate-controlled depositories. The Czech Ministry of Culture, the SOS Architecture Archive, the Memory Bridge and other donors such as the Hlavka Foundation contributed to the drying and restoring of archive documents.
The shared research room of the NTM Archive and Architecture and Civil Engineering Archive is open Tuesday - Wednesday 9:00 - 17:00
Please note that the research room only offers services indicated in the blue part of the price list. Other items on the price list are provided by other NTM departments and therefore Annex no. 4 of Decree 645/2004. Coll. does not apply to this part.
• Application for provision of display right (non-commercial)
• Contract for provision of display rights (commercial)
The Archive of Architecture and Civil Engineering (AAS) is not only unique because of the age of collections and the strong representation of various styles. It's also due to the unprecedented integrity of the amassed material that is uncommon for collections of this kind. In addition to valuable architectural plans and sketches, the archive features construction plans, photographs and a wide range of written documents (correspondence, personal documents of architects and builders, etc.). Acquisition activities are on going.
Architecture in AAS Collections
The legacies and personal archives of prominent Czech architects, supplemented by other resources, form the basis of the NTM's Architecture Archive, containing over 130 individual collections. Stylistically this begins with the period of historicism, and chronologically includes the period from the mid 19th century to present, spanning Bohemia and Moravia with a predominance of Prague materials. The archive documents come in a diverse range of forms – sketches, drawings, plans, photographs, negatives, correspondence, personal documents, company documents and brochures.
Strongly represented are the periods of historicist styles (Josef Zítek, Josef Schulz, Antonín Wiehl, Antonín Viktor Barvitius), Art Nouveau (Jan Kotěra, Josef Fanta, Alois Dryák, Jan Koula, Bohumil Hubschmann), Czech cubism (Pavel Janák, Josef Gočár) and especially the period between the wars beginning with purism (Vít Obrtel, Evžen Linhart, Bedřich Feuerstein) and culminated with functionalism (Jan Gillar, Oldřich Tyl, Kamil Roškot, Josef Štěpánek, Pavel Janák, Josef Gočár, Otakar Novotný and others). From the more recent period and present the NTM acquired the legacy of Otto Rothmayer, Plečnik’s most important student, and the SIAL studio in Liberec. The index of architects is the primary organizational principle of the catalogue of processed collections.
The legacies and personal archives of prominent Czech architects, supplemented by other resources, form the basis of the NTM's Architecture Archive, containing over 130 individual collections. Stylistically this begins with the period of historicism, and chronologically includes the period from the mid 19th century to present, spanning Bohemia and Moravia with a predominance of Prague materials. The archive documents come in a diverse range of forms – sketches, drawings, plans, photographs, negatives, correspondence, personal documents, company documents and brochures.
Civil Engineering in AAS Collections
The set of Civil Engineering collection is closely related to the collections stored in the NTM's archive and also to the 3D Civil Engineering collection. Represented here are collections of major figures and companies active from roughly the end of the 19th century to present (A. Lanna, B. Belada, firmy Brázdil and Ješ, M. Klement, K. Friedrich, among others).
The sphere of construction is represented by plans of historical construction projects, road maps, photographs from building sites of roads and instructional texts. The Bridges archive collection features competition designs from competitions for bridges in Prague (drawings, plans, photographs, calculations and documents for wooden, chain, steel, stone and reinforced concrete bridges in Czech and Austrian-Hungarian territory, as well as photographs and plans of bridges no longer existing. The Civil Engineering collection also includes photography albums and documents on natural disasters. Hydraulic engineering is represented by a collection of photographs and plans on river regulation (Elbe, Vltava), the construction of weirs (Kolín, Štětí), sluices (Obříství), hydro-electric plants (Hradec Králové), canals, dams, etc. The area of waterworks engineering, sewerage and gasworks is also represented. Among the rarer archive documents we can find, for instance, drawings of the Malostrana waterworks from the late 18th century and the plan for the Hradčany waterworks.
Last of all ASS collections
Downloads
List of archive collections 0,3 MB