GutGut - Open - Exhibition at DUČB

Exhibition curator: Michal Škoda

Our studio is located on the ground floor of a residential building in a popular Bratislava neighborhood. If the weather permits, which is about 300 days a year, we have our doors open to the street. We know all the "characters" from the neighborhood. They sip drinks and engage in endless debates about everyday topics at the nearby convenience store. It often happens that someone stops by just for a chat and coffee. Occasionally, passersby mistake us for a café. We have large display windows facing the street. The window from the meeting room overlooks a courtyard where neighbors hang their laundry. We are connected to life on the street and in the courtyard. Anyone can see us, and vice versa.
The same connection is what we seek in our work. To destabilize typological stereotypes and ingrained boundaries of private and collective space across various scales and typologies. We appreciate austerity, simplicity, and functionality, but also playfulness and looseness. We handle materials freely and lightly, often in a collage-like manner. We like to connect spaces vertically or horizontally, intending to expand the shared space. The project for the reconstruction of the industrial building Mlynica works with vertical connections of different functions, and the Loft on Živnostenská or the competitive design for the Grössling spa develops a horizontally layered plan. The revitalization of the panel house in Rimavská Sobota through new hanging balconies establishes the possibility of close contact and interaction among neighbors, thus opening up opportunities for the creation of relationships and community living.
This perspective on sharing space and its reflection in the creative process has always been close to us, perhaps experienced in childhood on porches, in backyards behind houses, or in gardens without fences. It has become an integral part of our architectural creation and is also reflected in the everyday life of our studio. The principle of seeking contact and blurring boundaries is applied in all scales, whether it is a project for a small cottage or an apartment building.
That is why we are here. We are opening our studio for a month right here in the gallery, allowing visitors a glimpse into the daily process of architectural creation. We become a living exhibition. The spatial and operational collage of the publicly accessible space of the gallery and the creative environment of the architectural studio disrupts the imaginary boundary between the public and private. Our doors are open. Welcome

GutGut is an experienced, opinion-forming, and innovative Slovak architectural studio led by architects Štefan Polakovič and Lukáš Kordík, focusing on a range of work from small interventions to building design and urban planning. Their well-known projects such as the apartment building on Dunajská Street in Bratislava, the reconstruction of the panel apartment building in Rimavská Sobota, the cottage near the Senec lakes, or the conversion of the industrial building Mlynica in Bratislava are based on international experience and also respond to the local context and history. GutGut is active in the public domain as a co-organizer of the DAAD festival (Days of Architecture and Design) in Bratislava, which facilitates critical discourse on local issues on an international platform. GutGut is a laureate of the ARCH prize and multiple laureate of the CE-ZA-AR Architecture Award. In 2019, their Mlynica project was selected among the 40 best projects for the Mies van der Rohe Award and also won the national BigMat Slovenkso 2019 award. In addition to the aforementioned studio in Bratislava, they recently opened a branch in Prague.

Štefan Polakovič is an architect, urban planner, and co-founder of the GutGut studio with a relatively extensive practice. From the outset, his work offers views that transcend traditional solutions. With his design of a functionally and typologically layered residential structure, he became a laureate of the Europan 5 award (New housing landscapes, travel and proximity) in Košice's Ťahanovce. Since 2013, he has also been engaged in teaching activities at the Faculty of Architecture in Bratislava, where he led the Institute of Architecture of Civic Buildings. He currently serves as a visiting professor at the Faculty in the vertical studio Polakovič/Bátor.

Lukáš Kordík is an architect, urban planner, and also a co-founder of the GutGut studio. He studied at the Faculty of Architecture STU in Bratislava and the École Nationale d'Architecture de Lyon. He worked as an assistant in Atelier III at the Department of Architectural Creation at VŠVU and as a visiting instructor at FAST in Bratislava. In 2019, he led Atelier Kordík at the Faculty of Architecture CTU in Prague. Besides working in his own studio, he was one of the founding members of the OFCA (Office for Collaborative Architects) association, which facilitated knowledge transfer for the informal professional community as a continuation of meetings within the European research project City Visions Europe. He lectures on his work both at home and abroad.