VI PER Gallery based in Prague, Czech Republic, is a non-profit institution which focuses on architecture in the broadest sense, together with its relations and points of intersection with contemporary art, urbanism, design and media, as well as the political, legal, social, economic, ecological and spatial contexts which help to shape architecture and the built environment.
The biggest Czech bank is building its new headquarters – changing a brownfield neighbouring Prague’s historical core – supporting creation of a fresh, liveable city district – forming contemporary environment for its employees, visitors and inhabitants of Prague.
Now on display at the Jaroslav Fragner Gallery as part of the third Prague Experimental Architecture Biennial is “ZHA: Unbuilt,” an in-depth look into some of the firm’s best projects that could have been.
Arranged within the space by typological concepts (towers, atriums, stadiums, shells, masterplans, ribbons, and bubbles), the exhibition serves as an exploration into the evolution of the work of Zaha Hadid Architects, showing how earlier research and innovations have become the foundations of the firm's architectural projects currently in development.
reSITE, an annual conference held in Prague, is among the world's most important forums for discussing cities and urbanism. Pooling together experts, architects, mayors, planners, municipal leaders, real estate developers and city makers from twenty countries, the event brings almost 1,000 participants together.
In these two episodes of The Urbanist, Monocle 24's weekly "guide to making better cities," the team report from this year's incarnation—entitled "In/visible City"—talking to the likes of Kathryn Gustafson, Jean-Louis Missika (Deputy Mayor of Paris), Adriana Krnáčová (Mayor of Prague), and Marlena Happach (the Chief Architect for Warsaw).
https://www.archdaily.com/876385/reporting-from-resite-2017-monocle-24-talks-to-mayors-chief-architects-and-city-plannersAD Editorial Team
Now in its sixth year in its home city of Prague, reSITE is a conference that has consistently taken a broad view of urban issues, bringing together the largest concentration of the world’s top architects, urbanists, urban planners, landscape architects, and economists under umbrella topics such as Cities in Migration (2016), The Sharing City (2015), and Cities and Landscapes of the New Economy (2014). However, when it comes to events like this, such broad-ranging ambition can be a double-edged sword, flattening and obscuring the nitty gritty details of complex issues. Perhaps reflecting a concern that cities and the challenges they face be seen in full, reSITE 2017’s chosen theme was In/Visible City.
That particular lens reflects a shift in recent years for events such as this to bring into focus that which has typically remained firmly out of view: infrastructure. An allusion to the technical was manifest in the conference’s visual identity: a human heart, with pipe-like arteries and vegetation growing in between the cracks. The heart is to the body like infrastructure is to the city – but just as the body is much more than its circulatory system, the infrastructure cities depend upon is not limited to the obvious, billion-dollar construction projects that make headlines. Urban infrastructure spans all scales and numerous disciplines, ranging from design details to the small print in city policy. In/visible City brought forth the invisible features that give shape to the visible city demonstrating that cultural vitality, social fabric and citizen participation are infrastructural as well.
https://www.archdaily.com/875851/resite-2017-s-the-in-visible-city-conference-unveils-the-infrastructural-heart-of-urbanismAndres Ramírez & Fiona Shipwright for PLANE–SITE
reSITE brings the 6th annual architecture and urbanism event, reSITE 2017: In/visible City, back to Prague at the Ricardo Bofill-designed Forum Karlin.
How does invisible infrastructure shape the visible aspects of a city?
40 international thought leaders will discuss the intersections of design and infrastructure and the presence of these vital systems in the architecture and landscape of cities.
Archimarathon is the Organic City lectures block, presenting international architects and professors in a series of discussions with students and the general public around the topic of the Organic City, example projects and developments, concepts and ideas.
The Organic City Archimarathon presents guest architects lecturing at the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University in Prague on Friday, October 7th, from 10:00am.
Architecture Week Prague is an international festival of architecture and urbanism taking place annually in the city of Prague, Czech Republic. It presents a selection of the most outstanding projects of contemporary world architecture, urban planning, landscape, urban regeneration and development.
Videos
reSITE Conference, Prague, Forum Karlin. Photo Dorota Velek
On June 16-17, Prague will be hosting one of the leading architecture and urbanist events in Europe. Most of the 49 world renowned experts who will speak at reSITE 2016: Cities in Migration have experienced migration themselves. Coming from 20 countries, they will bring innovative solutions and successful strategies for European and Western cities to come to terms painlessly with the influx of new residents. Carl Weisbrod, Chairman of the City Planning Commission of NYC, Professor Saskia Sassen, sociologist at Columbia University, and Michael Kimmelman, the Architecture Critic for The New York Times will come from New York City. A huge number of speakers will come from Germany. Besides the famous landscape architect, Martin Rein-Cano from Topotek 1, Berlin, we will meet one of the city planner of Munich and the co-founders of the initiative “Refugees Welcome.”
In a city as renowned for its historic buildings as Prague, urban change can often be hard to come by – which is why the announcement earlier this month that Zaha Hadid Architects will be designing a large complex of buildings around a railway station close to the city's historic center was big news. But is this the design that Prague needs? In this interview, originally published in Czech by Česká televize, Michaela Polakova speaks to Martin Barry, the Chairman of Prague-based NGO reSITE, for his analysis of how the design will impact the city's future.
Michaela Polakova: What is your opinion on the new Zaha Hadid Architects building in Prague?
Martin Barry: To me, it seems is too early to comment on the aesthetics of the buildings. We should focus on how the collection of buildings enhances the urban character of the city, and how they can improve the urban condition around the buildings. The city is a collection of buildings; the spaces between are what influence people’s lives; not so much the materials and forms of the architecture. That being said, this is a major development site and relatively large footprint of buildings from ZHA adjacent to the historic center of the city. So, we should pay close attention to how the designs develop. At present, it is clear that it is early and they need work.