The architect Alois Pilc was one of the most important creative personalities of the Přerov region in the period between the wars. In addition to his building practice, in which he excelled especially in the frequency and architectural level of his work, he also worked as a stage designer for the Tyl amateur theatre group in Přerov. He published short pieces in the local daily press that reflected on his own work as well as the surrounding architectural scene. He thus represents a unique representative of architectural criticism and theory on the periphery.
Born in the East Bohemian town of Bílý Újezd, he was sent to Moravia, where he first studied at the Imperial and Royal Technical College of Franz Josef I in Brno during the First World War (he was unable to complete his studies because of the war, but was awarded his degree of Ing. Arch. thanks to a ministerial exemption). He then moved to Přerov to work as a designer and construction engineer in the construction company of his uncle Josef Pilc. The Pilc family was generally connected with construction activities in the Přerov region; in addition to Aloisʼs uncle, both his brothers – Jaroslav Jan as a construction locksmith, Václav as a master bricklayer – and also his cousin Bořivoj as a construction assistant in his fatherʼs company – worked in the industry.
Right from the beginning of his tenure in the company, he had a relatively free hand, and thus his inventiveness was evident in his first projects in Přerov. Outside the town, Pilcʼs first projects made their mark in the mid-1920s, thanks to – for the first time very popular – commissions for Sokol halls.. In 1926, the Sokolovna buildings in Kojetín and Lipník nad Bečvou were built, and in the same year his design for Hulín won third place, but remained unrealised. A year later Pilc also took part in the competition for the Sokolovna in Přerov, but because of other orders he was not able to submit the project on time. In 1930 he built Sokol halls in Hranice na Moravě, Uherský Brod, and Topoľčany in Slovakia, and in 1934 he built one in Vlkoš.
In 1930 he took over the management of his uncle's company; however, the business did not prosper. The architect established his own studio in 1932 and devoted himself to public and private commissions. Among these, the collection of Přerov villas in the vicinity of the newly created Michalov Park (the villa of the Henik family, the villa of the descendants of Stanislav Feit, etc.) stands out. Pilc also worked out the design of the famous Central Moravian Exhibition (1936) as the main designer for this district.
From the point of view of style, Pilcʼs interwar work underwent a smooth development, responding to central influences, ranging from echoes of Kotěraʼs Modernism, Cubism, and Rondocubism to their purist variations, occasionally with elements of Dutch Constructivist architecture. However, he did not give up certain decorative tendencies even in his finest work oriented towards functionalism.
From the mid-1920s he was involved in politics and the Sokol movement, co-founded an association for the protection of the homeland in Hranice, and also worked in the amateur theatre association Tyl in Přerov as a stage designer. As part of the tenth year of the amateur theatre festival Divadelní Hronov, Pilc wrote a lecture on scenography, which was subsequently published in a book. A neat handbook called The Artistʼs Work was intended to help amateur artists to learn and understand the existing knowledge of the theory and practice of stage design. Pilc published his other texts, this time about architecture, in the local press (Obzor, Naše Haná, Kojetínské hlasy). They reflected on architectural events in the surroundings or his own work. We can thus consider him an important and rare personality in the field of architectural theory, because the writing of texts on architecture was mostly done by architects of large cities (Pavel Janák, Bohuslav Fuchs, etc.).
The Second World War brought the normal course of life to a halt, and thus Pilcʼs design activities ceased for a time. At the turn of the 1930s and 1940s, he was only finishing the villa projects that were in progress. After the end of the war Pilc was one of the first to become actively involved in public political activity. He was a member of the Czechoslovak Socialist Party, for which, in 1946–1954, he held the post of deputy in the Přerov City National Committee, where he was also a member and chairman of the construction commission. He also took care of cultural matters. At the beginning of 1946 Pilc was elected to the committee of the district education council, where he obtained the position of chairman of the section for the construction of model villages. In the same year, he sat on the assessment committee for the selection of a new regulatory plan for Přerov.
After nationalisation Pilc lost his own firm, and since he wanted to continue working in his profession, he moved to the newly established state project institute Stavoprojekt. In the same year, he began to supervise the construction of the Přerov engineering plants. In 1952 Pilc became deputy head of the project centres in the newly founded Chemoproject, for which he prepared surveys of Moravian towns such as Šumperk, Litovel, and Štíty, in addition to Přerov.
The political vetting carried out in 1958 probably led to Pilcʼs hasty retirement. It can be assumed that as a former businessman and social democrat he had to leave his position at Chemoprojekt. As a result of serious health problems, he gradually withdrew from his political and public activities. He died in Přerov in 1965.
IM (translation by SG)
Selected literature
Ivana Láníková, Architekt Alois Pilc a Přerov, in: Jan Janák – Jan Jeništa – Klára Jeništová et al., Kapitoly z výtvarné kultury města Přerova: Architektura, výtvarné realizace, design, Přerov 2016, pp. 24–37.
MM [Martina Mertová], Vila Jindřicha Lančíka, in: Pavel Zatloukal (ed.), Slavné vily Olomouckého kraje, Brno 2011, pp. 137–138.
Tomáš Pospěch, Hranická architektura 1815–1948, Hranice 2000.
Alois Pilc, Práce výtvarníkova, Přerov 1946.
Selected sources
Ivana Láníková (Málková), Architekt Alois Pilc a Přerov. Architektonická centra a periferie (diploma thesis), Katedra dějin umění FFUP, Olomouc 2018.
Ivana Láníková (Málková), Architekt Alois Pilc a Přerov. Architektura jako scéna (bachelorʼs degree thesis), Katedra dějin umění FFUP, Olomouc 2015.
Daniela Kaňáková, Architektura a urbanismus Lipníku nad Bečvou v letech 1900–1950 (bachelorʼs degree thesis), Katedra dějin umění FFUP, Olomouc 2011.
Martina Horáčková, Architektura střední Moravy, 1918–1945: Přerov, Kroměříž, Bystřice pod Hostýnem, Holešov, Kojetín (diploma thesis), Katedra teorie a dějin výtvarných umění FFUP, Olomouc 2004.
Muzeum umění Olomouc
Pozůstalost A. Pilce, fondy A 1481–1536.
