Architect Martin Rajniš in two new books - book launch at DOX

Visionary architect and experimenter Martin Rajniš is releasing two books that he compares to a double grenade, to Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. The large and elaborate monograph Huť architektury Martin Rajniš, built primarily on photographs and drawings, summarizes the last twenty years of Rajniš's work while also providing a glimpse into the future of architecture. It is complemented by the English translation of the biography 25000 Days of Memories (in Czech 25 000 dnů vzpomínek, Argo 2016), an open confession about a rough and cheeky life. Both books are published by KANT, with the launch taking place on June 20 at 6 PM at the Dox Gallery.

“The most fundamental thing that makes architecture architecture is a romantic and magical view of life, of the world, of the human fate. Without it, it collapses into a terrible, ugly, unbearable wretchedness. And what’s worse, people often accept it. Our big book is a call for magic, for beauty, for pleasant normal buildings that become our friends and delightful participants in our lives. Without this relationship, architecture is unacceptable to me. The two books act like a double war grenade: one part makes a small hole in the armor, the other causes an explosion inside. They are like Don Quixote and Sancho Panza: one a dreamer with his head in the clouds, the other a populist commentator. Both are our ark, big and small, carrying us into a mysterious future full of wonders that we have in our heads.” – Martin Rajniš

Huť architektury Martin Rajniš is a comprehensive and extensive monograph with over five hundred pages in a large format capturing the development of Martin Rajniš's and his colleagues' work over the last twenty years. One day, an established architect decided to “get off the tiger,” abandon everything, and set off on a journey for several years. Upon his return around the year 2000, he decided to seek new paths of so-called natural architecture. This book tells the story of that search.
“I came back from my travels excited by the freedom of the building methods of the natives in Papua New Guinea, Africa, and South America. In the nineties, I led one of the largest architectural firms in the Czech Republic at that time, D.A.Studio, with friends for over ten years. We undertook a number of large projects. And above all, we built an entire new neighborhood in Prague’s Smíchov at the site of the original destroyed old factory.
However, increasingly I felt the pressure of unfreedom. When working on similar projects, it inevitably comes. I felt with overwhelming force how compromises were increasing and how average, pragmatic, and banal thinking was gaining the upper hand. I had to break free. I felt that I simply had to get off the tiger. That I had to experience freedom. So I traveled, spending four years on the road. I crossed the Atlantic on a small sailboat, and aside from Antarctica, I have been almost everywhere.
When I returned, the 21st century was just beginning. And my desire to design buildings returned! But one thing I knew for sure: I had to try to do completely different architecture! And for that, I had to live a completely different life...” (Martin Rajniš)

25000 Days of Memories is the English translation of Martin Rajniš's biography, which he wrote with Magda Šebestová and published in 2016. The book became an instant hit and has seen two reprints. In the eponymous audiobook, Martin Rajniš was narrated by Jiří Lábus.
Architect, professor, and author of many professional publications, Martin Rajniš decided to write down memories from his life full of travel, unconventional twists, successes, and failures. As a rebel and provocateur, who has paved his own way throughout his life, he wants to show the reader that even a person, a nobody who was almost pushed into a remedial school, can live a great life. “I wish for the reader to loosen up while I’m telling my story, to start speaking in slang, and to enjoy the beautifully pronounced Czech curses that shine like a praline on a cake.”