Brno Architecture Manual

The Brno Architecture Manual is a project of the Brno House of Arts and is financially supported by the City of Brno and the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic. The website bam.brno.cz became a popular and highly specific tourist guide soon after its launch in 2011. It is a unique tool for becoming acquainted with the city, in particular because its interactive database with maps and an audio guide in Czech, English and German can be used for free on any mobile device in order to explore central Brno as well as other neighbourhoods. The project also includes a simple orientation system: on the sidewalk in front of each stop on the tour is the building’s code with a link to a web address where one can find detailed information about the various buildings and architects, the suggested walking tours, and modern and historical maps showing the city’s urban development. A description of the architectural walking tours through various city districts is also available in print in the form of a brochure and two guidebooks about Brno’s interwar and post-war architecture published in Czech and English: Petra Hlaváčková, ed. Brno Architecture Manual: A Guide to Architecture 1918–1945 (Brno: House of Arts Brno, 2012 and 2017), which won an award in the 2012 Most Beautiful Book contest, and Petra Hlaváčková and Lucie Valdhansová, eds., Brno Architecture Manual: A Guide to Architecture 1945–1989 (Brno: House of Arts Brno, 2020). The third book in the series was published in 2024 and focuses on the period 1900–1918. The goal of the BAM project is to create a database containing examples of Brno’s architecture from the birth of the modern city (roughly around 1850) to the present day, all with a view to developments in Czechoslovak and European architecture: BAM will thus continue to grow. Its target group is students, architects and the general public both at home and abroad, for whom BAM can serve as an online archive and initial source of information for further research. The success of the Brno Architecture Manual has inspired other authors, with expert consultation from the BAM team, to create similar projects in other towns: Pilsen, Litomyšl, Hradec Králové, Zlín, Jičín, Jihlava, Tišnov, a manual for the Přerov district, Art Monuments / Prague Architectural Manual and Opava. Ostrava, Pardubice, Havlíčkův Brod and the Olšany Cemeteries in Prague and further manuals are being planned for Mladá Boleslav, Ústí nad Orlicí.

Some of the above-mentioned cities are already part of the Architecture Manual platform, developed at the Faculty of Architecture of Brno. This database brings together all projects created using the methodology and technical framework of the Brno Architecture Manual (BAM) and enables users to search across all participating manuals. At the same time, it makes it easier for additional cities to join the Architecture Manual network. The aim of the Architecture Manual platform is to create a website presenting Europe's architectural heritage in an engaging and accessible way, making the results of architectural and art-historical research available to the general public.

Authors: Petra Hlaváčková, Rostislav Koryčánek, Šárka Svobodová, Lucie Valdhansová
Editors: Petra Hlaváčková, Lucie Valdhansová
Specialist consultancy: Petra Hlaváčková, Veronika Jičínská, Rostislav Koryčánek, Šárka Svobodová, Lucie Valdhansová

Texts about objects from period C (1918–1945) and realisation of the project: Petra Hlaváčková, Šárka Svobodová, Lucie Valdhansová
Texts about objects from period D (1946–1989): Barbora Benčíková (BB), Šárka Burešová (ŠB), Klára Eliášová (KE), Ludmila Haasová (LH), Jindřich Chatrný (JCH), Michal Kolář (MK), Jana Kořínková (JK), Lukáš Kos (LK), Veronika Králová (VK), Petra Hlaváčková (PH), Šárka Svobodová (ŠS), Lenka Štěpánková (LŠ), Lucie Valdhansová (LV), Markéta Žáčková (MŽ) a studenti katedry dějin umění FFUP
Research: Barbora Benčíková, Petra Šebová
Photographs: Michaela Dvořáková, Barbora Ponešová, Karel Poneš, Tomáš Souček, Vladimír Kiva Novotný
Graphic Design: 20YYDesigners (Sebastien Bohner, Petr Bosák, Robert Jansa, Adam Macháček)

Director of audioguides: Radovan Lipus, Jiří Honzírek
Sound of audioguuides: Jiří Suchánek, Jakub Nečas
Czech voices of audioguides: Simona Peková, Cyril Drozda, Milena Flodrová, Arnošt Goldflam, Jiří Kratochvil, Miloš Štědroň, Ivan Ruller, Zdeněk Müller, Lenka Zogatová, Petr Minařík, Jaroslav Rudiš, Adéla Elbel a Zuzana Fuksová (Čokovoko)
English voices of audioguides: Jennifer Helia de Felice, Simon Botten, Michele Burke, 

German voices of audioguides: Christine Rahn, Paul Lerch, Margarethe Thomasen

English translation: Kateřina Danielová, Irma Charvátová, Michal Dušík a David Joseph Gaul (Skřivánek, s.r.o.), Stephan von Pohl
German translation: Helge Goldhahn, etra Koryčánková, Johanna Posset, Evi Scheller, Pavla Seitlová, Florian Tilzer, Bernd Magar
Czech language editors: Alena Benešová, Olga Machatá (Skřivánek, s.r.o.)
Cooperation: Barbora Benčíková, Anežka Chalupová, Hana Chybíková, Ekaterina Gorshkova, Lucie Janošíková, Daniela Křižanová, Jan Svoboda, Petra Šebová, Petra Šmejdová
Historical photographs: Muzeum města Brna