Christmas Festival of Bad Habits
Architects from Peer Collective and artist Kateřina Šedá are transforming the idea of the traditional Christmas market in the centre of Brno – creating a place for calm, sharing, and self-reflection.
In the very heart of Brno, just a few steps from the bustling Masarykova Street, lies a space most passersby usually overlook. Římské náměstí (Roman Square) – an extended section of Františkánská Street – has long been a neglected corner of the city. This year, however, it has become the stage for an experiment that reconsiders our relationship to both the Christmas season and urban public space. The Christmas Festival of Bad Habits – a joint project by artist Kateřina Šedá, the architectural studio Peer Collective, the organization Renadi, and the Brno-střed Municipal District – turns attention away from the consumerist tradition of Christmas markets toward a deeper experience of the city and of oneself.
Path to Self-Reflection
The project originated from an initiative by the non-profit organization Renadi, which has long sought to create an environment where even people on the margins of society can feel safe during the holidays. It seeks to create a peaceful, sober place without alcohol and financial pressure, offering an alternative to the traditional, often consumerist notion of Christmas. In cooperation with the Brno-střed District, Renadi invited Kateřina Šedá, whose work focuses on building new relationships between people. Kateřina came up with the idea of combining this intention with The National Collection of Bad Habits project, on which she had been working for a long time, in order to create a square accessible to everyone. The main motif was to be a person's journey toward self-transformation, which takes place in the middle of the square – in a confessional. She invited architects from Peer Collective to collaborate, and the result is a project that transforms the classic Christmas market into a way to experience the city in a calmer and more concentrated way.
“Christmas is often more like a parade of human vices than a celebration of the most wonderful time of the year – there is the hustle and bustle of shopping and cleaning, the overeating and stress of visits, and finally the arguments with family. We decided to change that. To create a space that provides an opportunity to slow down, take a breath, and find some inner peace,” says Šedá.
The core idea is based on a simple shift of perspective – the entire festival on Římské náměstí (Roman Square) is conceived as a journey of self-reflection. Visitors gradually pass through situations that hold up a mirror to their everyday habits. These are built on the long-term project The National Collection of Bad Habits, in which Kateřina Šedá broadly maps Czech customs and weaknesses. The route is designed to encourage people to name their own bad habits, compare them with the experiences of others, and symbolically lay them aside in the “confessional” object. What began as a narrowly focused intention has thus become a concept open to everyone. To people struggling with any form of weakness, as well as those who simply want to take a moment to confront their own bad habits.
Variability of Public Space
Architects from Peer Collective responded to this topic with a minimalist yet expressive spatial composition. Using modular truss structures – commonly used for stage construction – they created a framework from which large-format curtains made of white and red fabric are suspended. The curtains then divide the square into a network of eighteen "rooms" – a sequence of passages and vistas that visitors walk through like a series of intimate interiors under the open sky. The temporary curtain structure – covering a total area of 2,478 m², roughly the size of ten tennis courts – functions as an urban stage redefining the idea of Christmas in the city.
The curtains metaphorically represent barriers that invite us to cross them. They form a kind of soft architecture – a fluid space that allows us to be alone while remaining part of urban life. At night, the structure transforms into an open-air gallery: testimonies from Šedá’s project, The National Collection of Bad Habits, are projected onto the white surfaces. The projections, accompanied by distant ambient sounds and soft light, create an environment on the threshold between the public and the personal – a space of intimacy within the urban centre.
"We didn't want the visitors to be mere spectators or passive consumers," say the architects from Peer Collective. “Everyone who enters the space becomes its active participant. Architecture here is not a backdrop but a framework for events that wouldn’t exist without human presence.” Where elsewhere mulled wine flows and loud music plays, here emerges a space of calm and shared reflection.
The focal point of the entire festival is the "confessional" object. The journey from confronting one's own bad habits culminates here in a space that offers the opportunity to overcome them. Six separate confession booths replace the classic market stall – instead of exchanging goods, people share their experiences, failures, and fresh starts. An interactive audiovisual system responds to visitors’ input, weaving individual statements into a collective portrait and transforming personal reflection into a shared experience. At the end, visitors return around the back of the red curtains – a symbolic return to the world that, for a moment, has quieted.
City Accessible to All
The theme of overcoming barriers is also reflected in the physical adaptation of the site itself. The surface of the square has been leveled with fine gravel using minimal means, making it barrier-free and accessible to all – from wheelchair users to parents with strollers. Residents themselves took part in shaping the space during an autumn community event, creating a natural moment of participation even before the festival began. The sale of alcohol was also banned from the premises, thus responding to less visible barriers – social and psychological ones. The result is a space that excludes no one and allows encounters among people of different experiences on equal terms.
Selected quotes from The National Collection of Bad Habits, a long-term participatory project by artist Kateřina Šedá, mapping Czech stereotypes and weaknesses:
“Christmas is one of the riskiest times of the year. People are drinking everywhere, everyone’s offering you something, and at every Christmas market there isn’t a single stall without alcohol.”
– social worker in an addiction service
“I start dealing with Christmas presents right after New Year’s. Sometimes I wrap them so early that I forget what’s inside and who they were meant for."
– anonymous
“Grandpa licks the Christmas cookies. He’s thorough, so when he’s filling the Linzer cookies, he smooths the edges with his tongue.”
– Tereza, 17
“Every year on Christmas Eve, at least one member of the family gets into an argument. In the morning, we always bet on whether we'll manage to do it again this year.”
– Markéta, 21, university student
“Twice now, my mother-in-law has given me something she originally got from me. In the same wrapping paper!”
– Hana, 47, shop assistant
“Every year my husband makes a New Year’s resolution to lose ten kilos – and then he puts on exactly ten instead!”
– Jiřina, 57
In the very heart of Brno, just a few steps from the bustling Masarykova Street, lies a space most passersby usually overlook. Římské náměstí (Roman Square) – an extended section of Františkánská Street – has long been a neglected corner of the city. This year, however, it has become the stage for an experiment that reconsiders our relationship to both the Christmas season and urban public space. The Christmas Festival of Bad Habits – a joint project by artist Kateřina Šedá, the architectural studio Peer Collective, the organization Renadi, and the Brno-střed Municipal District – turns attention away from the consumerist tradition of Christmas markets toward a deeper experience of the city and of oneself.
Path to Self-Reflection
The project originated from an initiative by the non-profit organization Renadi, which has long sought to create an environment where even people on the margins of society can feel safe during the holidays. It seeks to create a peaceful, sober place without alcohol and financial pressure, offering an alternative to the traditional, often consumerist notion of Christmas. In cooperation with the Brno-střed District, Renadi invited Kateřina Šedá, whose work focuses on building new relationships between people. Kateřina came up with the idea of combining this intention with The National Collection of Bad Habits project, on which she had been working for a long time, in order to create a square accessible to everyone. The main motif was to be a person's journey toward self-transformation, which takes place in the middle of the square – in a confessional. She invited architects from Peer Collective to collaborate, and the result is a project that transforms the classic Christmas market into a way to experience the city in a calmer and more concentrated way.
“Christmas is often more like a parade of human vices than a celebration of the most wonderful time of the year – there is the hustle and bustle of shopping and cleaning, the overeating and stress of visits, and finally the arguments with family. We decided to change that. To create a space that provides an opportunity to slow down, take a breath, and find some inner peace,” says Šedá.
The core idea is based on a simple shift of perspective – the entire festival on Římské náměstí (Roman Square) is conceived as a journey of self-reflection. Visitors gradually pass through situations that hold up a mirror to their everyday habits. These are built on the long-term project The National Collection of Bad Habits, in which Kateřina Šedá broadly maps Czech customs and weaknesses. The route is designed to encourage people to name their own bad habits, compare them with the experiences of others, and symbolically lay them aside in the “confessional” object. What began as a narrowly focused intention has thus become a concept open to everyone. To people struggling with any form of weakness, as well as those who simply want to take a moment to confront their own bad habits.
Variability of Public Space
Architects from Peer Collective responded to this topic with a minimalist yet expressive spatial composition. Using modular truss structures – commonly used for stage construction – they created a framework from which large-format curtains made of white and red fabric are suspended. The curtains then divide the square into a network of eighteen "rooms" – a sequence of passages and vistas that visitors walk through like a series of intimate interiors under the open sky. The temporary curtain structure – covering a total area of 2,478 m², roughly the size of ten tennis courts – functions as an urban stage redefining the idea of Christmas in the city.
The curtains metaphorically represent barriers that invite us to cross them. They form a kind of soft architecture – a fluid space that allows us to be alone while remaining part of urban life. At night, the structure transforms into an open-air gallery: testimonies from Šedá’s project, The National Collection of Bad Habits, are projected onto the white surfaces. The projections, accompanied by distant ambient sounds and soft light, create an environment on the threshold between the public and the personal – a space of intimacy within the urban centre.
"We didn't want the visitors to be mere spectators or passive consumers," say the architects from Peer Collective. “Everyone who enters the space becomes its active participant. Architecture here is not a backdrop but a framework for events that wouldn’t exist without human presence.” Where elsewhere mulled wine flows and loud music plays, here emerges a space of calm and shared reflection.
The focal point of the entire festival is the "confessional" object. The journey from confronting one's own bad habits culminates here in a space that offers the opportunity to overcome them. Six separate confession booths replace the classic market stall – instead of exchanging goods, people share their experiences, failures, and fresh starts. An interactive audiovisual system responds to visitors’ input, weaving individual statements into a collective portrait and transforming personal reflection into a shared experience. At the end, visitors return around the back of the red curtains – a symbolic return to the world that, for a moment, has quieted.
City Accessible to All
The theme of overcoming barriers is also reflected in the physical adaptation of the site itself. The surface of the square has been leveled with fine gravel using minimal means, making it barrier-free and accessible to all – from wheelchair users to parents with strollers. Residents themselves took part in shaping the space during an autumn community event, creating a natural moment of participation even before the festival began. The sale of alcohol was also banned from the premises, thus responding to less visible barriers – social and psychological ones. The result is a space that excludes no one and allows encounters among people of different experiences on equal terms.
Selected quotes from The National Collection of Bad Habits, a long-term participatory project by artist Kateřina Šedá, mapping Czech stereotypes and weaknesses:
“Christmas is one of the riskiest times of the year. People are drinking everywhere, everyone’s offering you something, and at every Christmas market there isn’t a single stall without alcohol.”
– social worker in an addiction service
“I start dealing with Christmas presents right after New Year’s. Sometimes I wrap them so early that I forget what’s inside and who they were meant for."
– anonymous
“Grandpa licks the Christmas cookies. He’s thorough, so when he’s filling the Linzer cookies, he smooths the edges with his tongue.”
– Tereza, 17
“Every year on Christmas Eve, at least one member of the family gets into an argument. In the morning, we always bet on whether we'll manage to do it again this year.”
– Markéta, 21, university student
“Twice now, my mother-in-law has given me something she originally got from me. In the same wrapping paper!”
– Hana, 47, shop assistant
“Every year my husband makes a New Year’s resolution to lose ten kilos – and then he puts on exactly ten instead!”
– Jiřina, 57
0 comments
add comment
