In a recent rummage through our archive, we found some amazing photographs of the famous family-owned shoemakers, Bata - and the interiors of their shop. The photographs feature the B34 Marcel Breuer Tubular Armchairs produced by Kovozavody Petr Jopek in Zlin, Czechoslovakia, from as early as 1928.

The company was set up in 1894 by Tomáš Baťa, whose family had been cobblers for generations. He was renowned for being extremely forward thinking and progressive in the way he ran his business. Not only in the way he furnished his shops with avant-garde furniture in crisp minimal interiors and contemporary lighting, but also in that he hired the best architects of the time to build beautiful Modernist architecture to house his stores, and be a monument to his family name.

The Bata store above is located in Prague, Czech Republic. It was designed by architect Ludvik Kysela and built between 1929- 1930. It s a fine example of progresive Modernist Architecture.

Bata department store in Brno was designed by architect Vladimir Karfik and built in 1931. This project was originally designed as Brno's tallest building and its first skyscaper, but due to difficulties with the geology of the site and also with the local authorities unhappy with the idea of such a tall building in the historic part of Brno, this project was sadly never fully realised - only six floors of the building ended up being built.

Bata was also very progressive in the way he cared for his employees. He believed that people could only do a good job if they had good conditions for living. Bata built a large amount of individual modernist homes "Bata houses" for his workers on the hills around the shoe factories. This concept was widely aplauded by the left wing avand-garde architects of the time, including Le Corbusier who came to visit Zlin in 1935 and was very keen on working for Bata on his urban plan. Sadly Le Corbusier's grand visions for Zlin were never realised. He was proposing a large scale communal block of flats which was not aligned with Bata's motto "work together, live individually".

Architects Gahura, Le Corbusier and Fuchs in Zlin.