Guided walk with Josef Vomáčka on Wednesday 15 May 2024
meeting at 16:00 at the monument on Jungmann Square
the walk will take about 3 hours
registration and fee 100 CZK in advance – see application form
each participant will receive a sound device
The devastation and destruction of public spaces – cafes, lounges, restaurants, or biographers – is a symptom of the extinction of downtown; the lack of small-scale replacement is not saving Detroit (and especially Prague). An interesting and depressing walk through a dying city, with reminders of the literally criminal practices of the ruling class in the early 1950s in this area as well.
Travelling exhibition of the Salon of Timber Buildings with excursion and debate
Opening on 19 October 2023 / 5 pm Afternoon excursion to local wood buildings from 12 pm! Expert debate with the participation of Kamil Mrva (architect), Vojtěch Dorňák (owner of Klouboucká lesní), Pavel Horák (architect and managing director of Prodesi/Domesi) and Radek Hegmon (chief designer and owner of Egoé). The Salon of Timber Buildings with the production support of the Pole designu (Field of Design platform) is organizing an architectural exhibition called Timber Buildings on Timber Building, which will present 39 selected timber buildings to the public, with an emphasis on the Czech and Slovak architectural scene. The intention of the event is to bring to light the accessibility, utility and aesthetic value of this type of construction, and to show the advantages and prospects of timber buildings as a sustainable form of construction in the field of individual residential, public, commercial and multi-storey buildings.
Among the studios presented at the exhibition, are: Fránek Architekt, Aulík Fišer architects, Kamil Mrva Architects, Atelier 111 architects, OBJEKTOR ARCHITEKTI, Prodesi/Domesi, Ateliér VAN JARINA, Kubis architects, Createrra, MVArchitektura, MOLO Architects, Archcon atelier, GRAU Architects, DDAANN architects, AEIOU, Třiarchitekti, Archteam, Stempel & Tesař architects, Studio Ark, Modulora and others.
The exhibition will be open to the public until January 2, 2024 at the Egoé premises, roof of building F, Bílovice no. 519.
24 June – 30 September 2023, Lipnice State Castle, Lipnice nad Sázavou
Accompanying programme: 5 June opening
5 June Expert debate (Libor Honzárek, Luděk Rýzner, Marek Hanzlík, Jiří Neubert)
The Dialogues in Time exhibition is, to some extent, the continuation of the first successful presentation of the exhibition New in the Old, held ten years ago. The theme of contemporary architecture in historical environments is often presented as a conflict between architects and conservationists. Unfortunately, this simplification is very misleading and in a way prevents both sides from engaging in a meaningful dialogue. The potential conflict is not one between the new and the old, but between quality and low quality. Architecture is an endless story that cannot be interrupted or even closed. However, just as it is senseless not to allow new architecture into a historic city, neither can architects be freed of their responsibility towards the city. The only way to find meaningful solutions is through open dialogue.
Public space and art have one common objective – they serve communication. The city provides a public space for physical movement, walking, transport, but also for meeting and establishing social contacts, it is a place of expressed and tacit communication between people. Artworks displayed in the open air play an important role in shaping this public space of communication. They address passing viewers, recall a common past of the community and thus reinforce the identity of the place, or, on the contrary, stimulate public debate with provocative new topics. But they communicate not only with the people, but also with the surrounding buildings and the physical space of the city, which they give important accents to, raising its aesthetic level.
These two roles of artworks in public space are the axis of this exhibition. We were curious how artworks bring themes of public interest into the public space and how they complete the physical face of the city, whether in the form of permanent objects, temporary artistic interventions, outdoor galleries, or sculpture festivals. In 4 sections a total of 61 artworks created after 1989 are presented, a short historical introduction recalls the earlier period from the 1960s onwards. The exhibition does not shy away from works that have caused controversy for various reasons.
The book thematically focuses on the work of Adolf Loos in broader connections leading to contemporary architectural developments. The international collective’s individual authors have concentrated on exploring the ideas and work of Adolf Loos, as well as on examples of direct and less obvious continuities of his work. The main unifying moment is the link to space in architecture, which became a key point of architectural thought in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Selected Loos designs are included in the book. The relevance and circumstances of the book in relation to the exhibition at the Jaroslav Fragner Gallery are presented in the introductory text by Dan Merta. Texts by Christopher Long and Maria Szadkowska discuss Loos’s background, illuminate the background of the ideas of the spatial plan and its practical application using the most famous example of the Müller Villa in Prague. Petr Domanický returns to important examples of the use of the Raumplan in an apartment building in Pilsen in his text. Less known use of Loos’s ideas from the circle of his followers is analysed in the texts by Martina Mertová and Jana Laubová. Filip Šenk focuses his attention on examples of contemporary architectural work with a creative search for spatial compositions and connections. Thinking space in architecture or thinking space in architecture is one of the strong themes of contemporary Japanese building design. Yoshio Sakurai’s contribution elaborates on the parallels and connections with the work of A. Loos. Texts by Hermann Czech and William Tozer return to the topic at hand through the eyes of practicing architects. The book also includes interviews with several prominent contemporary architects and architects whose treatment of the concepts and ideas of architectural space can be traced. Specifically, these include Alberto Campo de Baeza, the duo Mauricio Pezo and Sofía von Ellrichshausen, Sou Fujimoto and Momoyo Kaijima.
The new publication, initiated by the Architectura association and published in cooperation with Akontext and the Technical University of Liberec, is a direct follow-up to the online exhibition held in a limited form during the lockdown at the Jaroslav Fragner Gallery on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Adolf Loos (10 December 1870 in Brno – 23 August 1933 in Kalksburg near Vienna). The graphic design was once again undertaken by sculptor and graphic artist Jiří Příhoda.
