Baťa houses

Baťa houses: A phenomenon of Zlín living

The red-brick Baťa houses are among the most famous symbols of Zlín. They are an example of carefully planned, modern housing developed in the 1920s and 1930s as part of a comprehensive residential system for Baťa company employees.

Their story began in the Letná neighbourhood, the first Baťa district in Zlín, designed as early as 1915 by the renowned architect Jan Kotěra. After his death in 1923, development of the district was taken over by his student František Lýdie Gahura, who experimented here with new types of housing inspired by developments abroad. Here you will find experimental buildings and features unseen elsewhere in the city – mansard roofs, quarter-houses, or the original Alladin prefabricated wooden house.

A walk through Letná will lead you to the Nad Ovčírnou district, home to four remarkable model houses from the international architectural competition held by the Baťa company in 1935-1936. In an effort to break the monotony of the standardised house types, the Baťa company launched a competition for a new type of family home. The response was extraordinary. Zlín received an astonishing 289 proposals from architects from nine countries. The winning designs were used to create a model colony, serving as a permanent exhibition of contemporary modern housing culture in Zlín. To this day, you can admire houses designed by architects Svedlund, Benš, Jech, Vítek and Karfík. Interestingly, the world-famous architect Le Corbusier also submitted a design, though outside the official competition.

Within the Nad Ovčírnou district you will also find the Baťa Housing Infopoint, where you can learn a great deal about Baťa houses and their development. In an original Baťa house, you will find an exhibition that presents the entire system of thoughtfully planned Baťa housing, as well as the everyday duties of its former tenants. Alongside architectural solutions and adaptations of individual houses, you will also see building plans, models of different house types and many other points of interest. You can also look inside a faithfully recreated interior showing how people lived in the Baťa houses.

However, Baťa houses can also be found in other parts of the city – in Zálešná, Podvesná, Díly, Padělky and Lesní čtvrt'. Each area is slightly different, yet all share the same unmistakable atmosphere. Hedges, small gardens and the narrow lanes typical of Baťa neighbourhoods give these places their distinctive charm. 

If you would like to learn more about Baťa housing, we recommend the Zlín Architectural Manual (ZAM) website. The Baťa Housing I (Letná district) and Baťa Housing II (Zálešná, Podvesná, Díly districts) thematic routes will guide you through the history and architecture of these unique parts of the city. You can also set out with the ZAM mobile app or pick up a printed map at the Tourist Information Centre.