Rajniš recapitulates his work and believes in better architecture

photo: www.dox.cz

Prague - Architect and renowned creator of wooden buildings Martin Rajniš believes in a great revival of architecture that must come in the coming years. According to him, a rational and happy society cannot exist without quality architecture. And he firmly believes that humanity will gradually achieve happiness. He is now publishing two books about his nearly fifty years of work. Last week, a building in the shape of a balloon designed by him was opened in Prague as part of the DOX center.

"Architecture is the best thing that exists in the world. It is a bit down right now; we live between two architectural epochs, we are in a valley, but when you're down, the only way is up," Rajniš said in an interview with ČTK. He describes in his book "Twenty-five Thousand Days of Memories" that it was his father who led him to architecture, whom he didn't listen to much back then. "In high school, I was painting in parallel and participating in physics olympiads, and both went quite smoothly for me. My father came and told me: The connection of mathematics and art is architecture. Do architecture. I didn't think about it further, surprisingly, I took it as a certainty. And he was absolutely right; thank god I listened to him," he says today after nearly 60 years.

Martin Rajniš studied at ČVUT and AVU. In the 1970s, he worked in the SIAL studio led by Karel Hubáček. Along with John Eisler and Miroslav Masák, he built the Máj department store in Prague, and after the revolution, he was in a studio whose largest project is the construction of a shopping center in Prague's Smíchov. Later, somewhat in response to the decline of architecture he mentioned, he began to focus on smaller, mostly wooden structures. His most famous building is the new Post Office at Sněžka.

Two years ago, he received an international Award for Sustainable Architecture and was nominated four times for the prestigious Mies van der Rohe Award. His theme is experimentation and the relationship between architecture, nature, and human society.

But as he says, his earlier and current buildings have much in common. "I am like a subsurface river; it looks dry, but it always springs up somewhere." Even today, when he builds wooden viewing towers, he often appreciates the often-despised Máj. "It is a child of its time, but like few others, it is not pathetic," he believes.

"A department store is a box in which goods are exchanged for money - from this perspective, it is not impressive at all," he says about the possibilities that this type of contract offers architects. According to him, it was unfortunate to "cram this box into the corner and let it stick out," buildings of this kind should, in his opinion, be part of a block in historical centers - as he later attempted himself in the case of the Nový Smíchov center. He is also not enthusiastic about the fact that Máj has become a monument; he believes that buildings of this type could be replaced with new ones.

And what is the source of his optimism for the revival of architecture? "A rational and content society cannot exist without proper architecture; it simply isn't possible. And because society will find a way to finally be at least a little happy, wonderful architecture will walk with us in embrace. I am deeply convinced of that; one cannot exist without the other," he said.

"I don't know how fast it will be, 50 years, 100 years, 200 years? But it will happen. By then, there will only be three billion of us; women will rule us; there will be no families, there will be clans; we will live in small natural communities, we will stop working for money - all of this will happen; it's gently sliding that way. Teachers, cops, and the government are holding us back - they'll go to hell," he outlines his vision of the future.