Circle Winter 2022: Petr Hájek and Jan Hřebejk - new date

This year's cycle of our lectures will be opened by Czech architect and professor at the FA ČVUT Petr Hájek, who has already appeared in the Circle right at the beginning of the lecture cycles back in 2002 with the HŠH studio. He is among the innovative architects of today, and each of his designs sparks discussions both within the field and among the public. He has long been concerned with methods of reconstruction, recycling, and transformation in architecture. In the upcoming lecture, he will address not only these topics but also his relationship with other fields.

He will invite the renowned director of Czech films Jan Hřebejk for a dialogue in the Circle.
Jan Hřebejk has produced a number of commercially successful and award-winning feature films, including Šakalí léta, Pelíšky, and Musíme si pomáhat, for which he has received multiple awards.

This January dialogue will open topics of interdisciplinary inspiration and the mutual interplay of professions. Petr Hájek and Jan Hřebejk will jointly discuss interdisciplinary cooperation – how film and architecture influence each other, the role architecture plays in film, and vice versa, the role film plays in architecture. The duo of speakers will also focus on the theme of reconstruction, methods of transformation and recycling, not only in architecture.

Petr Hájek (1970, Karlovy Vary) is a graduate of FA ČVUT (1995) and the School of Architecture at AVU (1998) in Prague. In 1998, he co-founded the architectural office HŠH architekti and in 2009, the office Petr Hájek ARCHITEKTI. His most famous works include: Horní náměstí in Olomouc, Jiřské náměstí at Prague Castle, the Archdiocesan Museum Olomouc, the family houses Vila in Beroun, Hermína and Chameleon, the exhibition of the national pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia 2016, KCEV, revitalization of the Castle Hill in Litomyšl (riding hall, carriage house, stable, tent, park), reconstruction of the Water Tower in Prague 7, the DOX+ Centre for Contemporary Art, and others. He has been repeatedly awarded both domestic and international prizes for his work. He serves as a lecturer at FA ČVUT in Prague, where he has been appointed professor, and at VŠVU in Bratislava. He is the chairman of the board of the Art-Now Foundation, the founder of the LEA–Laboratory of Experimental Architecture association, and a member of the editorial board of the magazine INTRO. He is the author of publications such as Anastomosis, Diagrams 03, urbo kune, etc. He exhibits in the Czech Republic and abroad: space house, /anastomosis/ connected city, Diagrams, Care for Architecture, GALEGION utopian city, Principles.

Jan Hřebejk is a film, theater, and television director. In 1991, he completed his studies in screenwriting and dramaturgy at FAMU, where during his studies in the late 1980s he directed two short films in his own production. Since 1997, he has also been engaged in theater direction (among his most famous productions is Výstřely na Broadwayi). He has produced a number of commercially successful and award-winning feature films and series, including Šakalí léta, Pelíšky, and Učitelka. One of his best film achievements is considered to be the film Musíme si pomáhat, which received a total of 6 Czech Lions and even an Oscar nomination.

During this evening, we will also launch our new publication dedicated to progressive Belgian architecture. The seventh volume Texty o architektuře 19 presents a collection of interviews, articles, and transcripts of lectures focusing on contemporary Flemish architecture and is based on the cycle Belgická inspirace, which the Circle organized in 2019. The book features architects such as Jan de Vylder and Xaveer De Geyter, the BC architects studio, Rotor, as well as progressive structural engineer Guy Mouton.

Thank you for continuing to stay with us and architecture, and we look forward to your support this year as well.