Laser pyramid shines in Brno gallery
Review of the exhibition HIGH5 – PROJECT STUDIO
Smoke, dim light, sounds overlapping, metal and films—is quite an unusual exhibition titled "two-generational" by the Ostrava architectural office PROJEKTSTUDIO. It is called two-generational because it showcases the results of the work of a team of architects led today by David Kotek, whose foundations were successfully laid in the 1990s by his father—architect Josef Kotek, along with his colleague Pavel Krátký.
Today, the studio actively evaluates European themes—particularly the relationship between local, regional traditions and materials to the major trends of very, very late modernity.
For me, the most sympathetic work from this studio remains the small railway station building in Čeladná. The simple building does not demand attention—it makes us slowly look forward to the village behind it—if it were conceived with a similar wit.
On the other pole of PROJEKTSTUDIO's work is a visionary project of a light pyramid for Ostrava and Brno, which I appreciated, along with the video documentation that is, after all, part of other projects too.
The exhibition is titled HIGH5—which, according to the creators, is meant to evoke multiple meanings (e.g., Hi! - a greeting), but mainly it is a presentation of five projects selected as the "high five." These include the Concept house building in Ostrava with cheerful propellers on the roof, the railway station in Čeladná, a family house in Frýdlant nad Ostravicí with green moss on the roof, the Pospiech company headquarters in Ostrava made of polished steel, and the project of a laser pyramid intersecting above the center of the city of Brno. Each project is presented with a short artistic film and a steel model at a scale of 1:50, thus the visual experience of the exhibition is complemented by haptic elements. The surprising pyramid, proportionally corresponding to Cheops', is created from green laser beams penetrating the smoke, which helps to make it visible, allowing one to realize its size; it is at a scale of 1:200, specifically in relation to Brno's square.
A publication of the same name has been released for the exhibition, which complements these five projects with an additional 11 quality realizations from PROJEKTSTUDIO.
As my colleague Ševčík and I stated in this publication—we live in a time when the "cards are being reshuffled" again, globally redistributing chances, burdens, centers of decision-making, and jobs. The "paradigm" is changing—it is already clear which ideas lying at the foundations of Europe's development in the 19th and 20th centuries have been "consumed"; we are beginning to perceive our time after a period of "new opacity," "loss of identity" (Jürgen Habermas), as a phase in which the "direction of further development" (Helmut Renöckl) is being fundamentally determined again.
All major epochs have grown from rootedness in the land (Bodenständigkeit), from home and tradition; modern times disrupted "borders and traditions" and ultimately led to a loss of rootedness (Bodenlosigkeit). In "our time," the significance of home, the importance of regions in the context of European integration and globalization, is again increasing.
"Home" is an axiological quantity—it is a shared value around which everything revolves. It is the axis of our lives—and it seems that "Ostraváci" and architects associated with Ostrava not only feel and know this but can also express it. Ostrava represents a region where managing the past (including uncovering and evaluating the potential of brownfields) extraordinarily connects with the present and the perspective of the future, a region where traditions of the Czech Republic, Moravia, Slovakia, and Poland converge. All of this makes Ostrava and its surroundings a strong regional player.
The exhibition and the representative publication of the Ostrava PROJEKTSTUDIO demonstrate that there are architects in Ostrava who possess both a broad range and dynamic flair—and definitely deserve attention.
written by Ing. arch. Ondřej Beneš, PhD., doc. PhDr. Oldřich Ševčík, CSc.
in Prague 21/10/2015
Today, the studio actively evaluates European themes—particularly the relationship between local, regional traditions and materials to the major trends of very, very late modernity.
For me, the most sympathetic work from this studio remains the small railway station building in Čeladná. The simple building does not demand attention—it makes us slowly look forward to the village behind it—if it were conceived with a similar wit.
On the other pole of PROJEKTSTUDIO's work is a visionary project of a light pyramid for Ostrava and Brno, which I appreciated, along with the video documentation that is, after all, part of other projects too.
The exhibition is titled HIGH5—which, according to the creators, is meant to evoke multiple meanings (e.g., Hi! - a greeting), but mainly it is a presentation of five projects selected as the "high five." These include the Concept house building in Ostrava with cheerful propellers on the roof, the railway station in Čeladná, a family house in Frýdlant nad Ostravicí with green moss on the roof, the Pospiech company headquarters in Ostrava made of polished steel, and the project of a laser pyramid intersecting above the center of the city of Brno. Each project is presented with a short artistic film and a steel model at a scale of 1:50, thus the visual experience of the exhibition is complemented by haptic elements. The surprising pyramid, proportionally corresponding to Cheops', is created from green laser beams penetrating the smoke, which helps to make it visible, allowing one to realize its size; it is at a scale of 1:200, specifically in relation to Brno's square.
A publication of the same name has been released for the exhibition, which complements these five projects with an additional 11 quality realizations from PROJEKTSTUDIO.
As my colleague Ševčík and I stated in this publication—we live in a time when the "cards are being reshuffled" again, globally redistributing chances, burdens, centers of decision-making, and jobs. The "paradigm" is changing—it is already clear which ideas lying at the foundations of Europe's development in the 19th and 20th centuries have been "consumed"; we are beginning to perceive our time after a period of "new opacity," "loss of identity" (Jürgen Habermas), as a phase in which the "direction of further development" (Helmut Renöckl) is being fundamentally determined again.
All major epochs have grown from rootedness in the land (Bodenständigkeit), from home and tradition; modern times disrupted "borders and traditions" and ultimately led to a loss of rootedness (Bodenlosigkeit). In "our time," the significance of home, the importance of regions in the context of European integration and globalization, is again increasing.
"Home" is an axiological quantity—it is a shared value around which everything revolves. It is the axis of our lives—and it seems that "Ostraváci" and architects associated with Ostrava not only feel and know this but can also express it. Ostrava represents a region where managing the past (including uncovering and evaluating the potential of brownfields) extraordinarily connects with the present and the perspective of the future, a region where traditions of the Czech Republic, Moravia, Slovakia, and Poland converge. All of this makes Ostrava and its surroundings a strong regional player.
The exhibition and the representative publication of the Ostrava PROJEKTSTUDIO demonstrate that there are architects in Ostrava who possess both a broad range and dynamic flair—and definitely deserve attention.
written by Ing. arch. Ondřej Beneš, PhD., doc. PhDr. Oldřich Ševčík, CSc.
in Prague 21/10/2015
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