Contemporary Art and Architecture: Transformations of Housing

In the past year, the topic of housing has gained relevance – in isolation between four walls, working from home, or in quarantine, the true power of architecture has manifested itself. Has there been an intensification in the perception of housing demands and possibilities? What new requirements have emerged? Will this transformation be permanent? What does public development and housing supported by municipalities look like? Does the housing policy of the First Republic serve as a mirror and inspiration for us historically?

Moderator: Helena Huber-Doudová (curator, NGP)
Date of event: May 31, 2021, 6:00 PM
Duration: approx. 70 min
Location: FB NGP
Price: free

Vendula Hnídková studied art history in Brno, Vienna, and Helsinki, completing her doctoral studies in Theories and History of Design and Intermedia at UMPRUM. She has long been active at the Institute of Art History of the Academy of Sciences, where she initiated the establishment of the Window Gallery UDU in 2012, which she curated until 2018. At the National Gallery in Prague, she prepared the exhibition "National Style. Culture and Politics," for which a publication of the same name was released (2013). From 2017 to 2018, she served as an assistant professor at UMPRUM, and from 2019 to 2020, she lectured at the University of Birmingham; since 2021, she has been at Masaryk University in Brno. Between 2018 and 2020, she led research in Britain focused on the transfer of the garden city idea within Central Europe, supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship. She is the author and editor of several books, including "Moscow 1937. Architecture and Propaganda" (2018), "Jan Šépka. Inspiration" (2019), "The Spirit that Works" (2020).

David Tichý is an architect, educator, and architecture theorist. He studied at the Faculty of Civil Engineering and the Faculty of Architecture at the Czech Technical University, where he also completed a doctoral program focused on intergenerational housing concepts. In his practice, he has been involved in design activities at UNIT architekti for over 20 years, receiving many prestigious awards for his designs. He is an associate professor at the Faculty of Architecture at the Czech Technical University in Prague, where he guarantees the teaching of residential buildings and co-leads a studio with Michal Kohout. He also engages in research in the housing sector and is a co-author of extensive research on the development of panel housing estates in Central Europe, "Housing Estates, What Next" (2016). He is a co-author of the Prague Building Regulations and many publications on housing in the context of sustainable development and housing affordability. He is a member of the advisory board of the UN Economic and Social Council Housing Committee in Geneva.

David Neuhäusl is an architect. In 2015, he founded the studio NEUHÄUSL HUNAL with Matěj Hunal, which deals with practically all scales of the built environment and has received numerous awards in both architectural and urban planning competitions, as well as for interior design. David studied Architecture and Construction at the Faculty of Social Sciences at CTU, Urban Engineering at the Faculty of Architecture at VŠB, and International Business at the Faculty of Business Administration at the University of Economics, focusing on urban economics and the potential for humanizing Prague's Magistrála during his studies. From 2016 to 2018, he co-led a studio at the international school ARCHIP with Jaroslav Wertig as an assistant. He has written about architecture and its developmental conditions for Bigg Boss and ERA 21. He has contributed to the upcoming project "Architecture 58 – 89." Drawing on his experience from studying in Australia, he initiated the international Ideational Competition Superstudio in 2010. In the context of his doctoral studies at the Faculty of Architecture at CTU, he is researching public development.

NGP On Air | Contemporary Art and Architecture is a series of online discussions that will open up the topic of the impacts of the current pandemic on contemporary art and architecture. In a regular monthly cycle, curators of the Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art at NGP, Helena Huber-Doudová and Adéla Janíčková, will alternately present both fields. Invited guests will showcase their ongoing but also canceled projects. The subsequent joint discussion will focus on complex questions aimed at raising new approaches to the topic, rather than seeking a way back to the previously known.