Manufacturer · Czechoslovakia · Brno
UP Zavody
UP závody – Czechoslovak furniture maker from Brno (Spojené uměleckoprůmyslové závody), founded in the early 1920s; chief designer: Jindřich Halabala.
Pair of armchairs from the UP Závody factory, Czechoslovakia, 1970s
About the manufacturer
- Country
- Czechoslovakia
- Location
- Brno
- Designers
- Jindřich Halabala
Spojené UP závody (Spojené uměleckoprůmyslové závody), based in Brno, were founded in the early 1920s through the merger of Karel Slavíček’s company from Královo Pole and Jan Vaněk’s company from Třebíč. Vaněk promoted standardised furniture and the magazine “Bytová kultura”, while director Vladimír Mareček advocated quality, affordable series-produced furniture. The company sold it in its own showrooms with furnished interiors.
The chief designer at UP was Jindřich Halabala. After 1930, metal components for tubular steel furniture were manufactured in Hodonín; the first tubular designs were based on designs by Mart Stam and Marcel Breuer. After 1948, the factories, including those in Rousínov and Bučovice, came under the Brno Furniture Industry Directorate.
