In 1894 Tomáš and Antonin Baťa founded the Shoe factory T. & A. Baťa in their native town of Zlín
in Moravia, presently in the Czech Republic. The company sought to
implement industrial methods of shoe production and technical improvements such
as the first cloth made shoe Batovka,
first produced mechanically in 1897. Tomáš Baťa took inspiration from the Ford factory assembly line set-up with
standardized components. The whole production process and sales were kept under
the companies control. They even produced their own rubber for the soles on
site.
As a result of the rational and all encompassing
Bata-concept of a factory with workers colony the small provincial town of Zlín
grew into a large industrial city. The architects Kotara and Gahura pioneered
an urban model they had called Batapolis.
In the centre the factory was situated. The factory grounds were laid out
according to a grid pattern. That way operating the railway was less
cumbersome, the production process could be organized linearly and the factory buildings
could be better positioned to have maximum daylight flood through the windows
of the production halls. Around the factory the houses were erected. All were
semi-detached dwellings, with free standing houses for the higher echelons. The
houses were loosely grouped and had large gardens. Within the Batapolis model,
families were housed in houses; apartments were designated to single workmen.
From the 1920s the firm expands within Europe. They
open their first Bata store in the Netherlands in 1922. To circumvent customs
tariffs Bata decides to build several factories all over Europe to produce for
the local market. They didn't just build factories but also villages for the
workers. At the end of 1933 a new
factory was built south of the village of Best in the Netherlands. This factory
is an exact copy of the mother factory in Zlín. At this time Bata exploited 28
shoe stores in the country. Many of these sold shoes and also had a workshop for
repairs. The site in Best was chosen because of its proximity to a main train
line (Eindhoven - Tilburg), the
shipping canal (Wilhelmina Kanaal)
and the low land values. The site was rather isolated and consisted of former
heathland. This isolated location was ideal for creating a independent Batapolis. The factory produced shoes
for women, men and children as well as sport shoes.
The regional plan De
Meierij (literally: the bailiwick) drafted by the provincial planning
department had not reckoned with a large factory site in the middle of the
heath. Bata was allowed to build there, because securing employment was
important. Planner J.M. de Cassares was in charge of drafting plans for the
expansions of villages within the Meierij-region. His rational approach, modern
stance on urban design and economical attitude concurred with the dynamic
attitude towards the industrialization of the region held by the Bata company.
Anonin Vítek had drawn up the initial plans. These plans were however dismissed
by the planning inspector at the time called Bolsius, who advocated a traditionalist
approach based on catholic values, preservation of the local appearance and the
idea (or more to the point: ideal) of a local esthetic.
The 1938 plan* by De Cassares for
the new Batapolis (Bata City) in Best tries to marry rational land use and a
favourable positioning to the sun with a garden city based street plan. This
mathematical street plan owes -like most garden city layouts- to the then
current trends in garden design.
Although the factory layout was based on a grid, as
well as the first two rows of semi-detached houses Bolsius won in the end and a
garden city esthetic was introduced. De Cassares translated this in his 1938
plan for Batapolis Best into a thoroughly modern (and rather emblematic) plan
consisting of a main axis that formed the spine of a circular road intersected
by roads ending in a close at both ends. Along these streets long rows of flat
roofed semi-detached houses were envisaged. Around a central square that
followed the old grid shops were drawn. Just below the pivot point of the
factory grid and the tapering central parkway a church was imagined. Sadly only
the northern most part of Batapolis would be built in Best. After 1945 housing
for the workers was no longer provided by the Bata company but by a building society
that developed Wilhelminadorp north of the Wilhelmina Canal. This location
between the factory and the existing village of Best was deemed better suited
for housing than the isolated Batapolis site. Thus Bata City never came to be.
Now we find Batadorp (Bata Village) here in its stead.
Here the original grid is
superimposed on the never realized plan for Batapolis. A strip of green public
garden separated the factory site from the housing. This is still the case
today. Around the edges there was space for sporting grounds, a park or a farm.
* the plan has been drawn based on a reproduction of
the original land use plan and expanded from this.
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