The study represents the urban-planning work of the relatively unknown Moravian-born architect Josef Marek, a pupil of Jan Kotěra and a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. During his years in Slovakia after 1919 up until the end of the 1950s, Marek created an entire series of urban plans, though the form of several of them remains unknown. The present study investigates the competition entries for the urban plan of Bratislava, created within the framework of formulating the interwar ideas of the city’s further development. At the same time, though, they extend into the postwar years, when the city’s development occurred under extremely different political as well as economic conditions. Using Josef Marek as an example, the study uncovers the complexity of investigating the urban development of modern Bratislava.
Author: Peter Szalay
The Czech Discourse on Regional Planning Between 1945 and 1948
The study focuses on the peak period of Czech regional planning during the short-lived postwar Czechoslovak democracy (between 1945 and 1948). The author examines the attitudes of leading actors of the debate about regional planning, and discusses how their concepts corresponded with the immediate rhetoric of ongoing political, social and economic transformation. Among the leading figures of the debate, the architects Jiří Voženílek and Ladislav Žák stand out as figures whose opposing technocratic and ecological standpoints clashed in 1948. Another crucial figure was the architect and urbanist Emanuel Hruška, the most enthusiastic Czech advocate of regional planning.
The Urban Space of the Migrant Crisis: Analysis of the Spatial Evolution of an Informal Transit Camp in Budapest’s Historic City Centre
From June till September 2015, Baross Square in front of Budapest’s Keleti Railway Station became the temporary living area for thousands of refugees and migrants travelling to Western Europe. This unconventional use of one of the busiest squares in the historic centre gave rise to a new perception of the existing environment. The paper aims to show how the recently renewed, two-level public area gradually transformed into an emergent transit camp. The spatial and temporal evolution of this camp is divided into three successive phases based on the changing roles of formal and informal interventions: an early, unorganised informal stage, a formally controlled stage, and finally an organised informal one. Data gathered from regular on-site fieldwork reveal that the camp space was produced mainly out of reactions to people’s need of temporary shelter, food and information. The different modes of these reactions in the three phases are analysed and visualized throughout the paper.
B-PRO: EXPERIMENT ON A THRESHOLD OF TEACHING AND RESEARCH
Exhibition: B-Pro Show 2018
26 September – 5 October 2018
The Bartlett School of Architecture, London
From Smooth Surfaces to Voxel Architecture
MARIO CARPO: THE SECOND DIGITAL TURN: DESIGN BEYOND INTELLIGENCE
2017, Cambridge, MA, The MIT Press. 224 p.
ISBN: 978-0-262-53402-4
The Emergence of Discreet Poetics
Shota Tsikoliya (ed.)
Conception: Imrich Vaško, Shota Tsikoliya
Akademické platformy výpočetného navrhování
2018, Vysoká škola umělecko-průmyslová v Praze, 128 p.
ISBN 978-80-87989-40-1
Microbial Ecologies Exploring Industrial Hemp Behaviour under Artificial Climates (Growing Apparatus)
Microbial Ecologies (ME) is proposing a speculative scenario in which is able to explore new robotic fabrication processes as a framework for investigating the generation of bio-artificial systems. These systems allow us to regenerate polluted and eroded terrains, protect the soil from farther erosion and encourage healthy plant growth using interconnected 3D fibre systems.
Material Moods: Material and Algorithms
The introduction of emergence theory in architecture nearly 10 years ago rapidly changed the field of digital architecture towards process-oriented design. The functioning process of algorithms shifts the designer’s approach to the field away from the modeling (copying) of forms toward their generating. As designers no longer fully control the final shape, the computer and the algorithm become a partner in the design process. The “Material Moods” project applies the logic of algorithms to physical materials and explores the possibilities of this new viewpoint. Its focus on the natural processes in materials reveals new qualities for design, production and a new field of architectural interpretations.
The Smooth Striped City
The main aim of urban design should be to provide as elastic a plan as possible. This plan should define private and public space and allow its users the maximum possibilities and freedom to build. We seek such tools and methods that would be elementary but also sophisticated, which using only a few rules could define coherent and rich environment situations. The smooth and striped methodology could be understood as a bottom-up system which uses the idea of smooth regulations lines (the wooly path) as a rhizomatic street system which generates differentiated urban cells. In these cells, we evolve the solar envelope based on genetic algorithm and solar exposition calculation. Public space is translated as the urban field (S. Allen) to provide better navigation and orientation of users. Hence, the digital possibility of working with an entire part of a city down to the smallest part of the street is the greatest benefit of computer-aided design. Thanks to the generative design, we can share the qualities of the whole with their parts.
From Architecture and Construction to the Planning of Autonomous Processes, Systems and Structures
Studio FLO│W at the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University in Prague holds the belief that a digitally-driven architecture should be flexible, interactive and adaptable. The digital revolution, together with the development of new advanced materials, has principally changed the way of planning, directing, controlling and building constructions. Through the creative engagement of algorithms, an architect, a designer or a student can generate endless number of similar structures of buildings, which means a geometrical output of predetermined dimensional, referential and functional dependencies. The aim is to connect people and processes into a single functional organism, which will also engage in lively communication with its environment. Digitally-driven architecture aims at a paradigmatic shift away from static through interactive to adaptable structures and systems sensitive to application of materials and exploitation of natural resources.
The Project “Learning by Doing” at FA CTU
Can you learn architecture without direct experience? In recent years, attention has been paid to the idea of “design-build” projects at schools of architecture, the methodology of which makes it possible to bring students to the reality of architectural practice differently than the simply mediated. Students have the opportunity to create a proposal for a specific situation of a real assignment and to verify its validity both by elaborating an implementation project and mainly by individually formulating the implementation of this proposal. The Faculty of Architecture of the CTU has already successfully implemented several design-build projects in the past and the topic of the teaching methodology of this type has long been devoted to research.
Behind the Glitch: Research by Digital Drawing in Contemporary Architecture Education
This work examines the epistemological and creative potential of analytical drawing in architecture, reinvented in the age of computation. The immediate object of survey involvesthe drawings produced within different type of courses at the University of Belgrade’s Faculty of Architecture: an introductory theoretical course for Bachelor’s studies, a design teaching studio at the Master’s degree level, and an independent PhD research project. Our investigation suggests that digitalization of analytical drawing brings to architecture a whole new spectrum of alternative modes of inquiry, which can presumably lead to higher levels of criticality and creativity in contemporary architecture and architectural education.
Wall Curtain On the Idea of Soft within the Digital and Fabrication Realms
The project Wall Curtain tests the properties of the soft in the real and computational worlds. Both territories influence and teach each other. The textile techniques are virtually simulated in order to create an object: a new, complex and well-informed soft layer of an interior. This enclosure fills the imaginary gap in between our bodies and architecture around. Thus the project investigates the conceptual, material and technological consequences of working with textiles in architectural contexts.
Aspects and Appearances of Mathematisation in Architecture from the Standpoint of Christopher Alexander’s Theory
This text forms a response to the crucial changes occurring in the architecture design process during the 1990ties and the post-millennial era. This radical transition, shifting from the analogue design principle to the digital processes through new technological possibilities, is changing the key conceptual apparatus of the architecture of 21st century. Searching for answers to the key questions about mathematisation of architecture, it treats the theory and work of British-American architect and theorist Christopher Alexander. The analogies found between Alexander’s design method with the digital one, indicate Alexander as a definite initiator of algorithmic generative design.
Interactive Buildings: The Case for Interaction Narratives
In this position paper, we present the results of ongoing theoretical investigation into the phenomenon of “interactive architecture.” Interaction in architecture deals with the meaningful exchange of information and physical acts between building and person. Beyond responsive systems like automated doors, shading systems, and so on, most examples of interactive architecture are technological explorations that probe the possibilities and potentials of interaction. In this paper, we claim that this state is not enough. The focus in this paper is on the design of comprehensive and consistent styles of interaction rather than a series of isolated and unrelated interaction events. Different people in various contexts require different sets of behavior from an interactive building. In turn, these sets are conceptualized as “interaction narratives.” We argue that such narratives can provide a better fit of the interactive building with the user, and lead to more profound understanding of such systems.
New Argumentation for the Digital Paradigm
It has again become necessary to argue for the conceptual novelty and potential of digital design to emerge a relevant moment in the history of architecture. We are conducting research into design and fabrication tools with a generative capacity – i.e., the possibility to create during the manufacturing process. A multitude of agents enters the morphogenesis in the emergent design approach. The concept “Design by Behavior” predicts architectural agents, while its emergent outlets will address the discipline of architecture. The result of the digital design is an abstract promise of an object with all its potential forms. We are proposing a vision of architecture as a state machine with a non-deterministic context and elements implemented implicitly.
Editorial
The development of information technologies and the digitalisation of architectonic tools has radically changed both architectural practice and architectural research. Currently, it is difficult even to cite an area of human activity where computer technology lacks a significant role, and architectural design is hardly an exception. Computers shape all stages of architectural creation, from design through optimization up to production. The development of computer technologies in architectural design is manifested in two main tendencies, these being the digitalisation of the design tools and the digitalisation of the design processes. Yet these tendencies are connected, so much so that they can only be observed in their mutual relations. And, as in many other fields, a change is underway in architecture’s approach: there is discussion about open systems, soft systems, generative processes and bottom-up methods. The transition from reductionism to a view of the world as an open dynamic system has changed architectural thinking. Though computational tools have been in use in architectural practice for almost half a century and have formed an essential component of most architectural studios during the past two decades, the absence of a clear and coherent theory of digital architecture complicates our view of its various branches and any clear definition of its concepts. Concepts such as parametric designing, generative design, or computational design have a distinct lack of clarity in their relations and hierarchies. In the professional literature, there exists a difference between “computational design” and “computerised design”, or conversely even “computer-aided design”. The first idea is understood as the process through which specific problems are first conceived as abstract data and their mutual relations are depicted in the form of logical and mathematical formulae. A concrete architectural problem is replaced by an abstract model, and various solutions are simulated and evaluated. As such, it primarily concerns the digitalisation of the design process itself. The second concept is used in the case of using digital tools that make use of the calculating power of information technology to compile and organise information already known. Yet these two forms are not opposites, but indeed complementary phenomena. For a better understanding of the mutual relation between digital processes and digital tools, it is necessary to state their context within the wider scheme of architectural practice, theory and technology. The first graphic systems for computational design appeared in the 1960s. Originally, their ambition was to imitate earlier programs used for structural calculations and use them for addressing more purely design-oriented problems. …
Tribute to the great man, architecture historian and critic: Friedrich Achleitner (1930 – 2019)
CLEAR, NEVERTHELESS UNIQUE SANDALO
VIZIE MODERNOSTI, RUDOLF SANDALO (1899 – 1980)
Autori Výstavy: Jindřich Chatrn7, Dagmar Černoušková, realizácia: Tomáš Hollý, Jindřich Chatrný, Ivan Jakubovský, Jiři Pikous, Zuzana Vašaryová
Slovenské národne múzeum Bratislava, 18. 4. – 1. 9. 2019
When Tradition Remains a Strong Theme of Creation
EVA BORECKÁ
TRADIČNÁ MODERNA NA SLOVENSKU. ARCHITEKTI FRANZ WIMMER & ENDRE SZÖNYI / TRADITIONALISM IN THE MODERN MOVEMENT IN SLOVAKIA.
ARCHITECTS FRANZ WIMMER AND ENDRE SZÖNYI
2018, Akademické nakladatelství CERM,
Brno, 126 s.
ISBN: 978-80-720498-75
Writing Architects
EUROAMERICKÉ ARCHITEKTONICKÉ MYŠLENÍ 1936 – 2011
ROSTISLAV ŠVÁCHA, MILENA SRŠŇOVÁ, JANA TICHÁ
2019, Praha: Zlatý řez. 720 s.
ISBN: 978-80-88033-03-5
Dual-Character Models of the Transition: Deductive and Inductive Perspectives on Post-socialist Urban Development
DANIEL KISS
MODELING POST-SOCIALIST URBANIZATION / THE CASE OF BUDAPEST
2019, Birkhäuser, Basel, 208 p.
ISBN: 978-3-0356-1649-1
Adaptive Reuse of Zagreb Tobacco Factory Buildings in the Context of Contemporary Urban Regeneration
This paper focuses on the paradoxical failure of the contemporary city to realize the regeneration of an industrial building for museum purposes, in contrast to avant-garde conversion of a tobacco factory into a university building in the late 19thcentury. In addition to the former tannery conversion in today’s Glyptotheca of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts during the 1930s, the City of Zagreb inherited two avant-garde examples of abandoned factories regeneration for social and cultural needs of a contemporary city even before the appearance of industrial archaeology in the 1960s.
The Greater Bratislava of Architects Alois Balán and Jiří Grossmann
The declaration of Bratislava as Slovakia’s capitol opened a new chapter in its urban development. In reflecting on the new city, a significant contribution was made by the visions of architects Alois Balán and Jiří Grossmann, as the only ones consistently presenting the urban program of Greater Bratislava. The present study presents the intellectual genesis and deeper analysis of the important ideas of these architects, and suggests a connection with their intensive publication activity as well as their practical engagements in propagating a new regulatory plan and forming the necessary professional institutions.
Bohuslav Fuchs’s “New Zoning”
This article deals with a remarkable yet little-explored topic in the history of Czech urban and regional planning: the work of the well-known architect and urban planner Bohuslav Fuchs. The article focuses mainly on the post-war period, especially the 1960s, and on Fuchs’s devotion to “New Zoning”, the context in which his urban and regionalist ideas matured. First, the article summarizes the available information about Fuchs’s life, and secondly, it provides a brief introduction to the history of Fuchs’s urban and regional work, including the concept of new zoning (which Fuchs sometimes also called anti-zoning). Finally, the article presents selected examples of Fuchs’s work, highlighting some potentially inspiring ideas for contemporary urbanism and urban planning. Throughout the article, particular attention is paid to the role of the natural environment.
Tracking Contemporary Streetscape Transformation Processes – Two Case Studies from Slovenia
This paper examines the transformation processes of city streets that have until recently been characterised by intense motor traffic, but which are currently undergoing, or are scheduled for, transformation into more people-friendly and high-quality urban environments, supporting the goals of sustainable mobility. The paper aims to track recent streetscape transformation processes in two selected examples from Slovenia, the first one from Ljubljana (Slovenska Street), and the second from Maribor (Koroška Street), while also presenting them in multi-layered timelines. The transformation processes, usually complex and long lasting are supported through the use of different tools. The timelines are focused on presenting the relationship between the transformation tools used and their effectiveness; the latter quality can be measured by the type and duration of the intervention, the participation mode and the mobility intensity. Moreover, our case studies show the multitude of viable tools and their impacts on space within the same legislative, political and cultural environment. While these case studies are Slovenia-specific, the lessons gleaned from them can be applicable broadly.
White, Everything White? Josef Frank’s Villa Beer in Vienna and Its Materiality in the Context of the Discourse on ‘White Cubes’
A recent conservation-science study of the materials used in the construction of Josef Frank’s main work, the Villa Beer (1930) in Vienna-Hietzing, and of the building’s surfaces was an opportunity to find evidence indicating whether the contemporary description of the wall color as a noncolor white corresponded to physical reality. The notion “Weiss, alles Weiss” (“white, everything white”), celebrated as “an expression of values and of the times” (Hammann, 1930), has been identified as a cultural construct that stands in contradiction to the actual materiality of the buildings of the period. It has become necessary to rewrite the color history of Modern Movement architecture: the white cubes were never white.
Skopje’s Transitions and the City’s Struggle to Preserve Collective Memories
Skopje underwent many changes to its urban environment, caused by different factors both human and natural. Due to these impacts the community’s responses have ranged from deeply personal to collective mobilization of attachment that erupted during some periods of rapid change. After the big changes that occurred after the 1963 earthquake and the dissolution of Yugoslavia when Macedonia reached its independence, the city and its citizens continuously struggled to find urban identity that could reflects the collective memories of the previous times. In searching for this urban identity, the last phase of the process was the “Skopje 2014” agenda promoted by the then ruling government. This paper presents the transitions in Skopje’s urban panorama. It analyses and presents how such transformations of urban and architectural environment can affect the urban identity and the collective urban memories.