Zlín is a paradigmatic example of a planned city in which domestic living, education, and recreation were geared towards a single goal: the economic profitability of the Bat’a shoe company. In spring 2009 a symposium attended by internationally-renowned scholars and local experts explored the extent to which Zlín may be regarded as a learning model for the future of urban planning and architecture. Thought provoking, Zlín fits neither the critical paradigms of postmodernism nor the certainties claimed by the defenders of modernism. A comprehensive anthology presents articles on the ‘phenomenon of Zlín’ by architects, sociologists, and urban theorists that combines, for the first time, historical analysis with a look at the city’s present and future development. Plans, photographs, and film stills highlight the outstanding aesthetic quality of the model city, generating further debate and new insights. The symposium “A Utopia of Modernity : Zlín” is a project of Zipp – German-Czech Cultural Projects, an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, in cooperation with The Brno House of Arts, the Regional Gallery of Fine Arts in Zlín, and the National Gallery in Prague.