The Church of the Sacred Heart (1922-33) dominates a quiet green square in the Vinohrady quarter in Prague, and with its majestic presence securely anchors the borough into Prague's panorama. The building is a characteristic Plecnik work, synthesizing classical, Modernist, and traditional Slovenian elements to create a building of great architectural force.
Eventually the church is enclosed by dark brown brickwork punctuated at regular intervals with vertical rectangular slabs of grey granite; above the brick wall a totally different architecture of classical proportions appears, faced in white render. tHe massive 42-metre high clock and bell tower further adds to the contradictory nature of the church, and offers a further striking contrast with the simple interior.
'Architecture In Detail' is a superbly photographed and technically informative series of monographs which embraces a broad spectrum of internationally renowned buildings, drawn predominantly from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Each sixty-page volume contains a lucid text by a respected author; a sequence of large-format, high-quality colour and black and white photographs; a comprehensive set of technical drawings and working details; and a complete bibliography and chronology, thus making these books the definitive work on the subject. They are essential purchases for enthusiasts, practitioners and students alike.
