LIBRARY AND CZECH OPENNESS

COMPETITIONS

Study and Scientific Library in Hradec Králové - competition 2002, realization 2004-08

With a certain degree of exaggeration, one could say that your office is an example of success in open democratic competition - you obtained significant contracts precisely through competitions. Do you participate in them often?
Actually, yes, our studio was established in 2002 and initially we had no work. At first, we only participated in competitions: we received third place for the pedestrian zone in Pardubice, we won the master plan for Tábor and the library in Hradec Králové. And we were fortunate that at least the Hradec project went into realization among the first places. If the project had been delayed, perhaps we wouldn't have taken off and would be building family houses now... The competition is mainly important because an unknown young creator can anonymously win it. Following the success confirmed by a professional jury, they can start their own office. This is historically how studios were founded in the Western world. Riegler Riewe established their bureau after winning Europan. Similarly, HŠH was founded in a similar way. However, there aren't many such offices because there aren't many competitions - especially not for large public buildings.
In the Czech Republic, we have a bit of a problem because there were project institutes here, and the tradition of offices of our size was interrupted. To this day, studios arising from architectural competitions face competition from those that have transformed from project institutes. They form project subdivisions and can secure contracts - in a way other than through competitions.

National Technical Library in Prague - competition 2000, realization 2006-09

However, you succeed in competition thanks primarily to competitions. Or at least it seems that way due to the two large libraries...
We competed for the National Technical Library in 2000 with Václav Králíček, with whom we had a studio at that time. For some time, it seemed that the library would not be realized and then we each went different ways. We divided up contracts - or rather, potential contracts - because there weren't many of them. The library project then lay dormant until 2004. But even here it holds true that for one success in a competition there are several competitions without awards.

Both libraries were funded from state resources. Based on your experiences, can you say what kind of investor the state is? Can it, for example, correctly define what it wants?
In short: The state apparatus creates an isprofin - a document where finance are defined for volumetric and capacity parameters. It specifies how many volumes the building should accommodate, how many study places to offer, and adds a certain amount of money to these requirements. Then the investor releases the contract - which was the State Scientific Library in Hradec and in Prague the State Technical Library.

Does the state have qualified people for such projects?
Specifically for libraries, these are people who have never built a library and won't be building one either. Inexperienced clients - librarians. Someone may hire an advisor, but it is questionable whether the situation improves, another may try to handle the task themselves.
The larger the state contract, the more advisors show up. Their position tends to be vague, as they lack experience in building libraries. In fact, they shouldn't provide advice; they should be monitoring - monitoring the funds and the timeline. Because it's not them but the librarians who have an idea of what the building should look like.

Who was your main partner in communication?
As partners, we always preferred direct clients - in the case of libraries, the librarians. The project was solely up to us and them. When working, it works wonderfully. From my perspective, establishing a close relationship and trust is very important: architect - investor, or user.


CONTEXT

Slunákov Environmental Education Center - competition 2003, realization 2005-07

Each of your libraries has a very different external form, which I assume responds to the given place, context, and the specified program.
The form flows from absorption, from understanding the place. And certainly also from function.
The National Technical Library was created earlier, stands in the middle of the campus, is intended for the surrounding schools, and has a relatively large plot available. We decided to compact the building, to create a beating heart, an object that will be passable. It is a closed house that holds a certain concentration within. However, we also wanted to make an open, translucent, permeable institution. That’s why the building has four entrances, which draw people from all sides. We didn't want a classic building with a central entrance, where everyone would come from Technical Street. When institutions are public, we try to make the public ground permeate the building. This similar thinking is also felt in Slunákov, where the ground - the path through the building was cut through. The NTK, according to the original design, was supposed to have an even more permeable ground floor, with the floor reaching a height of over six meters - today an intermediate floor has been added into the space.

Why did that happen?
The advisors thought the upper floor was too generous and felt the need to insert commercially usable spaces here. Meanwhile, servicing such a low-tech floor turned out to be considerably challenging and inconvenient. Otherwise, the building was designed with minimal ventilation because the spaces are interconnected and ventilate naturally.


Returning to the urbanism of Dejvice, how does the library react to it?
Like everyone else, we conducted a historical-urban analysis of the place. From the master plan of Professor Engel to the last action in the location, which is the ČVUT Menza, Student House. Due to the diverse structure of the city - campus, we decided on a formally compact house, with a ground floor that is passable and open.
The competition proposal also considered a parking garage alongside the library. In fact, the urban concept of two oval buildings that create a space of an intimate park was highly valued by the jury. Beyond the spatial qualities, the proposal also brought financial savings. However, during project discussions, neighbors voiced the opinion that, although on our land, parking should disappear and give way to some future undefined building with a more attractive purpose. The promise was made that one day the missing part of the composition would be built. One day... The parking house was canceled and garages were squeezed under the library. Everyone has a car, everyone uses it, but people dislike a parking house.

And two years later in Hradec?
It was a reaction to the waterfront, to the bridge, to Gočár's leather schools... A very lovely plot, where a university campus is being created, and there is also quite chaotic development from various periods nearby...
We told ourselves that the plot could not be developed into a box that people would have to walk around. People streamed through here, there was a bike path - in Hradec a lot of people ride bikes. It was a momentary idea to create a layout in the shape of an X and cut through the ground floor. It works like a kind of gateway to the campus, and back to the city. It communicates, is relaxed. And I think that's exactly why the design won. It was a completely different figure.

Study and Scientific Library in Hradec Králové - competition 2002, realization 2004-08

Was it important for you to build in Hradec? Near Gočár?
We even found Gočár's regulation of the place. It was not oriented perpendicular to the river but was angled. It was certainly much more qualitative than what is currently being demonstrated in Hradec, for example, by S Project Zlín, which is designing the campus. I think he should have also designed the library, but fortunately, an architectural competition was announced instead of a public commercial one...

You did not place the depositories underground. I mention this topic also because it has often been discussed in connection with the Prague National Library.
In Hradec on the Orlice waterfront, there is a risk of flooding. However, I don't know why such a condition remained in Prague. Perhaps more mentally, from a time when the reconstruction of Klementinum was being discussed. On the hill, however, it had no justification. Nowadays in Letná, they are happily digging tunnels; they could slowly make a 1:1 scale model of the library from the soil.

Why did you not participate in the competition for the National Library?
We picked up the conditions, but we did not compete. Fortunately.

In your authors’ report on NTK, you state that the building should be a technical textbook 1:1. What do you consider the most progressive from a technical sophistication perspective?
Already in the competition, we decided on a span of fifteen by fifteen, with a pre-stressed concrete slab and the activation of the concrete core...

Activation of the concrete core?
It works in both Hradec and Prague. It involves pipes embedded in concrete, through which a heating medium flows - it cools in the summer and heats in the winter. The structure radiates and tempers the building. This solution is advantageous for large objects because the accumulation has long inertia.

How often is such a solution applied?
In our country, it has been used on perhaps one object before library buildings. But it is commonly used in ice hockey rinks - for the ice surface - and similar principles were used in the first republic department store Bílá Labuť.

I'm sorry, I interrupted you.
At the NTK, we also considered the energy use of a double facade, where air would be heated in winter on the south and then blown around the building to the north. The hot air would be used for recovery - preheating the air for the interior of the building.

This solution was ultimately not implemented...
At the end of the nineties, there was enthusiasm for double facades. Ultimately, it turned out that their efficiency also naturally has its limits. Together with the indoor environment expert Honza Žemlička, we reconsidered the solution.
Even so, we continue to talk about a technical textbook. We also progressed in this sense with the interior. We invited designers, graphic artists, and fine artists to its solution.
Design and furniture were handled by Radim Babák and Ondřej Tobola from Hipposdesign, the entire corporate identity is done by the Laboratory of Petr Babák and fine arts PAS - Productivity Activities of the Present, specifically Vít Havránek, Tomáš Vaněk, and Jirka Skála.
We sat for hours thinking, for example, about the floors. When Kateřina brought results from the static engineer, with colorful spots representing the deformation of the ceiling panels, we agreed that it’s unnecessary to invent anything. This too is a form of visual information. Of course, it was challenging to push the solution through. For instance, the client wanted to adjust the color flows so that red would lead to the staircase. We explained complicatedly that the colors have a different meaning here. The colored rubber floor is so artistic that we agreed not to introduce other colors into the space. The rest is concrete and zinc, technical distributions.

Is there anything left from the project of the building as a textbook?
Petr Babák continued with the concept that the library will not only have information stating where the study room is and behind which doors sits Ms. Vomáčková, but we would also add information about the type of flooring or the size of the doors. The messages will often be marked with a dimension. Of course, information about floor color is secondary, but it should be available for those who want to find it. It will never be printed on a large poster that would impose itself on you.

Interior of the Slunákov Environmental Education Center

Is it common in your work that you leave part of the task to another creator? Such generosity is not entirely usual.
When I work on colors, for example, I invite someone who understands them better than I do. Architects are somewhat limited in color. Moreover, I enjoy letting the painter talk about the topic.
At Slunákov, fine artists Miloš Fekar and Eva Krásenská collaborated with us, although their designs were not realized. A whole new infosystem and visual were processed by Zuzana B. Horecká and Jana Honecová from Kultivar. They also created new visuals for the Hradec library in collaboration with Ondřej and Pavlína Doležal and Filip Mont from studio Pixl-e. We let painter Martina Novotná have the areas of concrete shafts in the library.
For each project, we assemble a team of collaborators. You must have all the necessary technical professions in it, but we also want other... let's say creative specialists: graphic designers, concept artists, programmers, intermedialists, and so on. This way, you create a team tailored to the project and offer the client full service.
I would like this approach to always prevail. But it’s tough to convince the client that in the initial building permit, they should also start working on the interior. And when they start addressing the interior, they should also consider corporate identity.
And once you take these steps, you begin convincing the client that public institutions must also have contemporary art. I am convinced of that. Not in the sense that a sculpture will eventually be placed in the vestibule, but that you invite artists who will engage in the project and come up with a certain concept. This mutual influence is exciting for us.

What other artistic entries arose from this interaction in NTK?
PAS proposed a total of six projects that are intertwined with the building's interior. In addition to the flooring, there is also, for instance, a corner where video art will be projected: You enter the technical library and encounter a non-technical message. The library is a place of gathering, and through these entries, you attract a different group of people. Or conversely: A geodesy student sees video art and realizes that he doesn’t actually enjoy geodesy... Furthermore, a news screen is being planned, a project inspired by the Centre Pompidou, where an Arab family watches Al Jazeera during the Gulf crisis. The idea is that there will be subscription channels that are not normally available. Then there is a network work - a space where people will be able to exchange information and messages. And a saga. In this case, it means providing the library to a director to film a story in it. The guys are not shy – they thought of Lars von Trier or Jan Němec. Thus, the library would go beyond its physical limitations, its existence...
These are all things that can be added to the building during operation. It just depends on whether the administration of the new library will produce them. However, the idea exists.

Dan Perjovschi at work in the interior of NTK

If I count correctly, there is still the sixth project, which will probably be the discussed drawings...
The central art work - that is the only one currently being realized. PAS invited three artists, the German Carsten Heller and Carsten Nicolas, and the Romanian Dan Perjovschi, who won. He worked in Prague in November and is expected to come back after Christmas and also in September for the opening, when a performance is supposed to take place. It involves drawings - socio-political glosses. Some of them are very strong.

In the context of Czech strictness - whether we agree with this theory or not - or possibly the prevailing minimalism of the time, this is quite a bold choice. Are you not afraid of how the concept will be received?
There are voices saying that the concrete is destroyed by the drawings. I personally like the paintings, although I didn’t speak much about them as an architect. The selections were made by the guys from PAS and primarily Dan himself.

So it is a permanent artistic entry?
The selection of the artist also included art historians Ševčík and Liška. And it’s true that we discussed whether the painting would need to be supplemented, redone, and so on in the future. But in the end, we decided that it should be completed at a certain time and then remain in place - as a sort of commentary on the era. Of course, it can be repainted. We'll see.

I can't help but ask: What happened to your right hand?
... In winter we play hockey on František. Alan Krajčír, who is from Bratislava, also goes there. Earlier, Michal Palaščák, who is another Brno Pardubice native, and I discussed that our generation of architects does not actually meet - I mean the Brno and Prague people. So we first organized a football match in Brno and then it came to a hockey tournament. In Bratislava, it went absolutely perfectly, the guys prepared jerseys: The Slovaks had blue, Prague red, and Brno white. After the match, they showed us some buildings, we drank at Závodný's wine bar and went for a drink. Suddenly, one realizes that there is such a thing as Bratislava and that there are guys there building houses.

Who played for Prague?
For instance, Tomáš Hradečný, Petr Uhlík, Pavel Mikulenka, Petr Lešek, or Aleš Steiner.

Will you repeat the tournament?
Two weeks ago we played in the Rondo hall in Brno. Mr. architect Ruller threw the bully. A battle.

And that’s where the injured hand came from?
That was at practice, a week earlier. In Brno, I could do nothing but coach.

Logically, will the third match take place in Prague?
At the end of the season, in April we want to organize a tournament at Štvanice. In a historical venue. We have to do that!


OPENNESS

Do you even have time to go to the library today? Or is it a rather past topic for you, let’s say associated with your student days?
I used to go a lot, mostly to the technical one for magazines and then to the city library.

Interior of the Study and Scientific Library in Hradec

Did you have a favorite?
I enjoyed going to the city library at Mariánské náměstí.
I often borrowed music... It was good that I didn't need a card and I just went to check out Corb's works.
Today, there is a trend to open the library a lot, to expand the free selection, but on the other hand, to control everyone. We want to be open, but at the same time, we record everyone who goes through the portal.
From my own experience, I know that openness is possible: I didn't need anything, I took a set of Corb's works, checked it out, and returned it to the shelf. Or, when I just needed something from regulations, I would pass by and stop by.

What about access to your libraries, does a reader get in freely?
In Hradec, the building is passable from the outside. There are two entrances to the building itself. Actually, they used to lead: I am sorry that when I was there last, I saw an entrance sign at one door and an exit sign at the other. I don’t understand that.

Unfortunately, there is still a need to regulate in our country. I don’t even mean fundamental things like zoning or lobbying - there, conversely, the state apparatus seems to feel no need for definition - but regulation aimed at individuals.
Regulate and dictate direction. Little arrows.

Interior of the National Technical Library

And in the National Technical Library?
You can just walk through it. Because on the ground floor you aren't even actually in the library. But then you proceed further into the carousel - and this very place sparked great debates concerning the installation of turnstiles.

Even in the library? By the way, just recently the debate on this subject ended next door at the Faculty of Architecture. Many students disagreed with their installation and besides the more significant issue of optical and mental barriers, their actual effectiveness can also be problematized: From my own experience, I know that even after their installation, I walked through an open barrier entirely freely during a recent discussion about urbanism.
It is related. The NTK consists of the State Technical Library, the University of Chemistry and Technology, and the Czech Technical University. And it was precisely the Czech Technical University that stated that it required turnstiles, otherwise it reportedly would not move into the building. Of course, they have their certain reasons, but for me the question arises whether we should educate people by letting them into the library freely or whether we will continually direct them. However, this way society will not become liberated. People will constantly have to prove their identity and collect passes...

But it has not been definitively decided to introduce turnstiles yet?
I fear that if there were funding for them, they would be there.
Initially, it was defined that the library should be open. We explained this topic over and over again. However, then other people started to enter the process. I don’t know how they will agree. Preparation has even been made - in certain places, there is currently a lack of underfloor heating so that turnstiles can be installed...

And the reasons?
There is talk of the homeless, for example. On the other hand, at conferences you hear how today the library is no longer an institution where you come and wait at the counter until you get a book, but a place where people meet, where they can rest, and where even the homeless can sit. However, when a homeless person comes, everyone minds. Or rather, it isn’t clear what to do with him.
Accepting openness is not simple, and it requires some extra concern. But monitoring the space can be done by other means.

If you live abroad for a while, you realize that life can be much freer. When I guided a group of architects in London a few months ago, most of them came to this conclusion - with great surprise and a certain degree of envy - after just two days... Maybe it’s just my impression, however, we Czechs are still accustomed to being directed, and it doesn't even bother us.
When someone governs us, we are satisfied. But I hope that when young people grow up, they will not be satisfied.

Yet the students ultimately accepted the turnstiles at the Czech Technical University.
They accepted them, but, with all due respect, it annoys them. Some kind of progress must come. Like the new dean at FAMU, who has Tomáš Vaněk spray painted clocks with a constant time into the meeting room.

Thank you for the interview.
Kateřina Lopatová

www.projektil.cz
www.kultivar.cz
www.pixl-e.cz
www.martinanovotna.net
www.fekar.com
www.pas.org
www.hipposdesign.com
www.laboratory.cz
www.perjovschi.ro