MetaCity CZ
Exposition of the Czech and Slovak Republics at the 10th International Architecture Biennale in Venice
In October 2005, NG announced a competition for a project to be exhibited in the Novotný Pavilion. It called on architects from 11 universities where architecture is studied. The competition received 12 submissions from three architectural schools in the Czech Republic (FA ČVUT, FA TUL, VŠUP) and two in Slovakia (VŠVU and FUTU). The jury ultimately decided that a project by the architectural studio Ivan Kroupa Architekti and Ivan Kroupa's Atelier at FA ČVUT would be installed in Venice. This entire effort was commented on by SuperBlog with two sentences: “Student works hung on scaffolding. We're not sure what it is supposed to convey.”
The original theme of the X International Architecture Exhibition was - MetaCity. A large city, a metropolis, into which an ever-increasing number of people concentrate, and architecture fails to create a fully-functional environment for everyone, everywhere, always. A city that rapidly changes its way of life, its functions, which breaks down into smaller units, where the city becomes a collection of parts, whose interdependence is released in practical life, while these parts form a sort of continuous settlement structure, in which traditional boundaries disappear and traditional connections transform.
The Czech Republic, with its 10 million inhabitants, is de facto one large MetaCity. With the landscape acting as a park between individual groups of settlements, with one large, many medium, and even more small and very small settlements. Where one begins and where it ends is no longer important; boundaries blur, the movement of people accelerates, and distances shorten. The theme of MetaCity concerns the entire country, not just one selected area. It is not the future; we live in MetaCity.
And it is necessary to quickly begin to ask what the role of architecture is in this city, the role of the architect…
Not just that of the current architect, with a distinct opinion and already somewhat anchored in a variably distant past. But what is the role of the future architect, one who is still being formed, gathering stimuli, and collaborating and competing in various degrees with those who prepare him for the profession.
To address a topic that is an exciting challenge and requires a new perspective on architecture, the National Gallery in Prague, which is preparing the installation in the Czech and Slovak Pavilion, decided to invite a somewhat different circle of creators than has been traditional until now. It invited creators who are also directly educating future architects to participate. From the 14 personalities who responded to this invitation, it then selected Ivan Kroupa's exhibition project for presentation.
An architect and his students, his pupils, and their common opinion on the contemporary city. A large city. MetaCity.
For Ivan Kroupa, the city is a theme he systematically addresses from various perspectives and at various levels of solutions. The city and its transformations, conversions, densification in architecture; the city, and its individual urban parts, peripheries, urban landscapes, and the expansion of the city into the landscape. It is not only a theme of his own work but also a topic he systematically engages with his students at the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University in Prague.
The exhibition primarily presents student projects. In topics that encompass the most diverse views on architectural - social - issues of contemporary MetaCity in the Czech Republic. Life in solitude, life in a small town, life in a settlement city, future life in a devastated and gradually reclaimed landscape. The movement of people – along forest paths, over water, along highways. In the city, it is not about expanding its already large area; the urban environment is cultivated and complemented by new objects that it lacks.
As part of these works, which are presented through a collective film and separate video installations of groups of student works, selected real buildings by Ivan Kroupa are also included.
The original theme of the X International Architecture Exhibition was - MetaCity. A large city, a metropolis, into which an ever-increasing number of people concentrate, and architecture fails to create a fully-functional environment for everyone, everywhere, always. A city that rapidly changes its way of life, its functions, which breaks down into smaller units, where the city becomes a collection of parts, whose interdependence is released in practical life, while these parts form a sort of continuous settlement structure, in which traditional boundaries disappear and traditional connections transform.
The Czech Republic, with its 10 million inhabitants, is de facto one large MetaCity. With the landscape acting as a park between individual groups of settlements, with one large, many medium, and even more small and very small settlements. Where one begins and where it ends is no longer important; boundaries blur, the movement of people accelerates, and distances shorten. The theme of MetaCity concerns the entire country, not just one selected area. It is not the future; we live in MetaCity.
And it is necessary to quickly begin to ask what the role of architecture is in this city, the role of the architect…
Not just that of the current architect, with a distinct opinion and already somewhat anchored in a variably distant past. But what is the role of the future architect, one who is still being formed, gathering stimuli, and collaborating and competing in various degrees with those who prepare him for the profession.
To address a topic that is an exciting challenge and requires a new perspective on architecture, the National Gallery in Prague, which is preparing the installation in the Czech and Slovak Pavilion, decided to invite a somewhat different circle of creators than has been traditional until now. It invited creators who are also directly educating future architects to participate. From the 14 personalities who responded to this invitation, it then selected Ivan Kroupa's exhibition project for presentation.
An architect and his students, his pupils, and their common opinion on the contemporary city. A large city. MetaCity.
For Ivan Kroupa, the city is a theme he systematically addresses from various perspectives and at various levels of solutions. The city and its transformations, conversions, densification in architecture; the city, and its individual urban parts, peripheries, urban landscapes, and the expansion of the city into the landscape. It is not only a theme of his own work but also a topic he systematically engages with his students at the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University in Prague.
The exhibition primarily presents student projects. In topics that encompass the most diverse views on architectural - social - issues of contemporary MetaCity in the Czech Republic. Life in solitude, life in a small town, life in a settlement city, future life in a devastated and gradually reclaimed landscape. The movement of people – along forest paths, over water, along highways. In the city, it is not about expanding its already large area; the urban environment is cultivated and complemented by new objects that it lacks.
As part of these works, which are presented through a collective film and separate video installations of groups of student works, selected real buildings by Ivan Kroupa are also included.
Radomíra Sedláková, curator of the pavilion
The English translation is powered by AI tool. Switch to Czech to view the original text source.
0 comments
add comment
