Jiří Kroha – Sociologický fragment bydlení [Sociological Fragment of Housing]. Monumental Czech Photomontage and Social Architecture

Jiří Kroha – Sociologický fragment bydlení [Sociological Fragment of Housing]. Brno: Krajské středisko státní památkové péče a ochrany přírody, 1973.4to (30 × 21 cm). Unpaginated [192] pp. Original printed wrappers. 80 full-page reproductions of Jiří Kroha’s extraordinary photomontage panels. Book design by J. Don. Fine condition.Important documentation of one of the most remarkable achievements of the Czech interwar avant-garde. Kroha’s Sociologický fragment bydlení (Sociological Fragment of Housing), developed during the 1920s and early 1930s, used photomontage, typography, statistical material, diagrams, and documentary photography to investigate the social and economic conditions of modern housing. Conceived at the intersection of architecture, sociology, and radical visual communication, the project transformed empirical material into dense Constructivist compositions examining poverty, overcrowding, domestic labor, health, and class inequality.This 1973 publication reproduces 80 of Kroha’s original photomontage panels, providing an exceptionally concentrated record of a project that remained largely inaccessible in its original form. The volume was prepared in book form in 1968–70 and describes the material as instructional and photomontage documentation of the 1923–33 cycle.A major document of Czech functionalism and socially engaged photomontage, combining the visual vocabulary of the international avant-garde with Kroha’s distinctive conception of architecture as an instrument of social analysis.