Bata-ville autographs here ...
Thanks so much to the Zipp team for inviting us to the Czech Republic to take part in their conference Utopia of Modernity: Zlín. I travelled out with Mike and Joan who were both passengers on the Bata-ville bus and boy did we have a great time. We saw the film in the original Bata cinema (which is enormous and features in the film) we signed autographs (I'm not joking) and generally enjoyed being at the heart of a great event.
'Uncle Mike' (despite being some years my senior) put me to shame on the social front - as I left the Bata villa with Joan on our last night, I saw him in the thick of a crowd of young Euro-architects all laughing like drains and making their way off to a rave in a grain silo - that's regeneration for you.
Joan, Mike and I
In front of the swanky refurbished 21st building
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JUST TO PUT THE RECORD STRAIGHT.
The conference was so full of content during the days that the only time I could do individual research into BATA architecture was after dark. So there I was minding my own business checking on the construction details of a BATA Grain Silo. It so happens that the younger elements were having a "rave" on the fifth floor of the ten storey building.
Well what did I find. Unlike traditional english silos, the Zlin one was based on the standard BATA rectangular block . So here we find three standard bays of 6.15 m square by ten bays deep. The side walls, usually windows, were filled in with only a fanlight row at the top of the walls.
No lifts were working, so I climbed slowly to the fifth floor where some sort of strange noisy ritual was being enacted. I was unable to climb up further to check the upper floors. What did I learn from this expedition - well basically that CZECH LAGER is best served cold !
"Uncle" Mike, August 13, 2009 00:03
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