introduction
Architecture Week 2007 Final report | 15.02.2008
Architecture Week 2007
Festival of modern and contemporary architecture Architectureweek 2007 took place in Prague from September 17 till 23 and was organized by Czech Architecture Week company under the patronage of Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, Czech Architecture Foundation, Society of Czech Architects and Czech Chamber of Architects. Main information center of the festival, AW Central, was situated in newly reconstructed building of Schwarzenberg Palace belonging to the National Gallery in Prague. Here the visitors could get information about the events, Guide book and see three exhibitions: exhibition of multimedia presentations and models from famous architects, architectural studios, developers, districts and investors called Arch Works 2007, exhibition Mobile and Modular Construction (Cubespace) and architectural comics by Tomáš Kučerovský: Forgotten Buildings (Era 21). Also some of the lectures, discussions and a workshop took place in AW Central together with film screenings (films about architecture in Latvia, Switzerland or Czech Republic). There was a bookshop with literature on architecture and design as well.
The festival brought attention of both professional and non-professional public. Most appreciated events were the lectures by foreign architects: Chantal Dassonville (Wallonia-Brussels) - Architectural quality in public investments; Mladen Jošić (Croatia) - Contemporary Croatian architecture 2002 - 2007; Edouard François (France) - Contemporary French architecture; Lorenzo Bellini (Italy) - Architecture and design of hotels and restaurants; Gabi Rottes (Germany) - Material meets application; seminar on Ecological architecture lead by Austrian architects and organized by Austrian Institute of Ecology; Matúš Dulla (Slovakia) - Absolut Slovak? Slovak architecture today and Jan Dvořák (Switzerland) - Swiss architecture in my view. All these events were organized with the support of the embassies and cultural institutes. The lectures and seminars always had full auditoriums, sometimes the capacity of the hall wasn’t enough and the organizers had to quickly gather every chair and seat that could be found around.
There were other exhibitions running on as a part of the festival: CI.CZ 1990 - 2007 - corporate design of Czech companies, organized by Design Center of Czech Republic; Life of the Industrial Architecture/ Projects for Alternative Usage of Industrial Buildings and The Face of Industrial Times (organized by VCPD within the Biennale Vestiges of Industry) and Building of the Year organized by ABF Foundation. Also there were other exhibitions like Feeling of Hi-Macs by Polytrade company, From the Meat Knife Board to the Urbanism by Defakto company, Contemporary Croatian Architecture 2002 - 2007 and exhibition of the Annual Prize of Association of Polish Architects.
The visitors could use the open days to explore and examine certain buildings and showrooms. For example Trmal’s Villa or Villa Müller, newly reconstructed church of Hus Congregation or companies like Aquatrade, Bulthaup Studio Prague, Kinnarps, mmCité and Ranný Architects.
Within the trade fair For Arch ABF company organized three conferences which were also part of Architecture Week program.
Kruh association organized Excursion North, a one day trip to the northern Bohemia with architect Martin Rajniš to see his wooden constructions and TV tower Ještěd (the only Czech building every awarded by the Perret Prize). Workshop for children took place in the Schwarzenberg Palace and was prepared by Book World company. The children could listen and discuss with Kateřina Bečková, curator of the City Museum Prague about Prague in literature and in the reality.
Czech Architecture Week company published Guide and Catalogue for the festival containing information about foreign participants, Czech architects and interviews with professionals from architecture and development.
The organizers are convinced that this year’s festival was a big success and that Prague really needed event like this. A lot of young people and students came to see the festival which was a pleasant surprise. Therefore the organizers will try to prepare the next year even more colorful, with more foreign participants and they assume that it will be focused on one particular topic. Also to extend the festival to other big Czech cities is important and the organizers hope, that Architecture Week will become a famous celebration of architecture.
Next years Architecture Week 2008 is supposed to be from September 29 till October 5, 2008. More information at www.architectureweek.cz
