Architektur aus der Schuhbox. Baťas internationale Fabrikstädte
Bauhaus Taschenbuch 2
Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau

The international factory cities of the Czech shoe company Baťa are early examples of globalization: When moving the production sites abroad, the entire Baťa System—from company fringe benefits to urban planning and architecture—was exported. The world economic crisis, colonialism, and international trade stimulated global expansion. Zlin in the Czech Republic was the testing site for the production of factory city based on modernist architecture. The model was designed to be efficient, mass reproducible, and exportable. Using the example of three of Bat’a’s satellites—Batanagar in India, Möhlin in Switzerland, and East Tilbury in the United Kingdom—this volume tells the story of the coming together of different models of modernization and their evolution to the present, with the closing of the production site.