A new unique museum of history was opened near Břeclav, presenting visitors one of the world’s leading archaeological localities – a complex of Paleolithic settlements, Dolní Věstonice-Pavlov. The locality is situated in a nature conservation area and it is a national cultural monument. Therefore, the building is situated under the ground and only white lighting towers interfere with the scenery of Pavlovské vrchy. Complex in its shape, the building is carried out as a monolithic structure in a white tub system while the three-dimensionally pointed ceiling is borne only by perimeter walls and towers without any other support. The materials used are dominated by relief concrete, oak and glass; the expositions include contemporary audio-visual technology alongside classic museum features.
» entire articleIn prison, people “eat, sleep, work, study, play, swim, go to the doctor and visit their families. They also speak, negotiate, listen, learn, and express their opinions; they have relationships, hate and love. In prison, people watch, think, read and listen to music, they have doubts and they find inspiration, they are concerned and alarmed, excited, depressed, hopeful; they cry and they laugh,” as Roger Paez, author of Mas d’Enric prison in Tarragona (see pages 28–31) writes in his book Critical Prison Design. Prison is a microcosm, a miniature unto itself. It is an island or a ship at sea inhabited by society that has to develop its own rules due to its isolation… and yet it peculiarly mirrors the society “on the other side”. Prison is a heterotopia.
» entire article“Anyone believing that exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist.” Kenneth E. Boulding, economist
In the second week in May, demolition of one of the biggest industrial areas in Brno, Vlněna, began. The complex of generous multi-storey industrial halls and spectacular spaces will be flattened to allow the green meadow to see the growth of 80 thousand m2 of offices. Why isn’t it possible to squeeze this abstract amount of square metres and parking places into the wide-span reinforced concrete structures of old spinning mills, why is it necessary to replace them with new ones? The answers to these questions can’t be found in rational common sense thinking but in the logic of economic calculations, credit approvals, and stock exchange trading results. The paradox of today’s maximization of productivity and growth, that should prevent us from falling into a crisis, is that we don’t need the products any more, we need to maintain economic growth above all.
» entire articleThe reconstruction and finishing of a school in the village of 2 000 inhabitants, situated on the edge of Prague, is based on a contrast between the original building from 1850’s and the new extension. Both objects differ at first sight, both in form (gable vs. flat roof) as well as in façade material (regular plaster vs. brick slips cladding) and window morphology. The original building was restored to its initial archetypal form, emphasizing its historical importance and dominant role in local urbanism. The new building, connected by a neck on the spot of the existing staircase, uses the school plot and leaves an open space for a playground and garden.
» entire articleAbout the phenomenon of a compact city, suburbanization, living in a city and measuring the quality of life; about building in a city, construction laws, and the endless case of Prague Construction Regulations; about politics as well as about how they live and which buildings in a city they consider to be of a high quality; all that we have discussed with three architects, urbanists, experts in city planning.
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