Jindřich Halabala

Jindřich Halabala (1903-1978) was an important Brno architect, designer, theoretician and publicist. He played a very important role in shaping modern housing culture in Czechoslovakia. He was born into a family of cabinetmakers, which also determined his lifelong career. After apprenticing in his father's workshop, he graduated from a vocational school for woodworking in Valašské Meziříčí. His next steps led him to the Prague UMPRUM under Prof. Pavel Janák, where he studied architecture, specializing in furniture and interior design. For two years he worked as the manager of the Prague shop of United UP plants in the Lucerna Palace, one of the largest furniture manufacturers in the Czechoslovakia. However, thanks to his talent and diligence, he was soon transferred to the Brno headquarters, where he could use his full potential. This Moravian furniture company, which was founded in 1918, was the largest in the country and in its field and had no real competitors at the time. Other companies only imitated and adopted not only the types of furniture, but also the way of selling and promoting UP plants. It was thanks to Jindřich Halabal that the level of advertising and sales strategy was very high. He determined the nature of the promotion of the products and even photographed the promotional pictures himself. As the chief designer of the Brno United UP plants in the 1930s, Jindřich Halabala and his collaborators created a production programme that uniquely combined the functionalist principles of Bauhaus with the graceful shapes of Art Deco and the fortele of Czech cabinetmakers. The products of Halabal's team had a clear identity, were modern, well-crafted and affordable. Jindřich Halabala's greatest contribution to the company was to perfect the modular furniture system. In the post-war years, when the housing crisis was a major and pressing problem, the issue of home furnishings began to be understood more comprehensively, depending on the architecture, type and layout of the apartment. The central themes were household efficiency and hygiene, minimal housing and the full use of small living spaces. Furniture had to be comfortable, functional, storable, cheap and accessible to a wide range of people, thanks to industrial production. In our territory, it was the United Arts and Crafts factories that brought about the rationalisation of production and the democratisation of housing culture, transforming both modern furnishings and the appearance of public interiors from the ground up. "The replicas that my father, Henry Halabala, designed for the United UP factories, and that Modernista brings to the world, are faithful and make a wonderful addition to today's interiors. I appreciate the opportunity to collaborate with you and to participate in bringing his designs to life." Ing. Ivan Halabala Barbora Kovářová