In the fall of 2016, it had been exactly 50 years since the first house called type V was completed in a village close to a Moravian town of Šumperk, designed by engineer Josef Vaněk. Under a widely used name “šumperák” it soon became a phenomenon, and as the most common new house it flooded Czechoslovakia. Its success is undoubtedly based on the period demand for individual housing and the possibility to build it relatively cheaply and easily in DIY manner using commonly available materials.
The exhibition is based on the book by Tomáš Pospěch and Martina Mertová, published in 2016, and in a way, it even represents its extension. It unfolds several variations of the šumperák phenomenon interpretation possibilities. It aims to uncover the variation series of the šumperák itself and at the same time to outline its complexity. Tomáš Pospěch, the photographer, and author of the project explains: “My project started with a simple fascination by the series as such. There were built more than 4,500 of these houses. There is a single idea, a plan behind all of them, though.” The exhibition thus also reflects on the question of originality and mass production in architecture.
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