The architecture 2014 - Into the streets, among the houses

The first weekend of October will once again belong to inquisitive citizens who will take to the streets of their cities. Those interested in architecture can look forward to the popular and much-anticipated Architecture Day - a festival that, for the fourth consecutive year, discovers interesting buildings and the potential of public space in several Czech and Moravian towns and municipalities.

The nationwide festival Architecture Day will take place this year on the weekend of October 4th and 5th. The event is organized on the occasion of World Architecture Day. This year's program will be held in 45 Czech and Moravian cities, including newcomers like Červený Kostelec, Hlučín, Jihlava, and Žatec, among others. Currently, 71 guided walks are planned. In Prague, Plzeň, and Brno, the organizers have prepared unique tours into otherwise inaccessible interiors - entitled Hurá dovnitř.

“We aim to highlight the hidden qualities of cities, the potential of places, and increase general sensitivity to our immediate surroundings. Through the nationwide program, we strive for better living spaces even in small towns and regions,” says the festival's founder and architect Marcela Steinbachová.

The weekend program will open with an ornithological expedition through Letná led by art historian Richard Biegl, while the organizers reveal a cycle ride through business Baroque in Roztoky near Prague, among other events. The program in the capital will offer a walk through contemporary architecture in Hanspaulka, reveal the bourgeois and gardening aspects of the neighboring district Ořechovka, and take interested parties to the now-defunct brothels in the Old Town. A walk through the Pankrác housing estate will focus on the combination of panel houses with contemporary architecture. Special attention is being given this year to industrial buildings, including during a bike ride over the Blanka tunnel and its surroundings.
From the regions, a walk through the exceptional works of interwar architect Ladislav Machoň in Pardubice and the first edition of an urban run up 269 stairs around Papírové náměstí in one of the vanishing quarters of Liberec is noteworthy. A guided bike ride with members of the SDRUŽENÍ PLAC on the art of the second half of the twentieth century in public space in Jablonec nad Nisou continues the unique book project "Intruders and Herons". What to do with panel houses in Litoměřice and the reality that even in housing estates one can live well will be addressed in a walk by Platforma Litoměřice///Leitmeritz, and you can share unmet dreams of architects in Rychnov nad Kněžnou.
The festival will also include workshops for children and parents about architecture and urban space, building on a series of educational programs about contemporary architecture with architects for children and students of kindergartens, primary, and secondary schools - Architecture to Schools. The festival will kick off on October 2nd with a lecture by the prominent London architect and educator from a prestigious school in Zurich, Adam Caruso, and the historian and theorist of architecture Laurent Stalder, organized as part of the lecture series "Swiss-Czech Inspiration".
The event continues from the previous three years and takes the form of architectural walks led by architects, historians, or theorists of younger and middle generations. They will offer the public in nearly fifty Czech and Moravian cities a unique opportunity to discover local architectural gems, interesting buildings of contemporary architecture, with the possibility to enter the interiors of selected buildings, and will draw attention to historical landscape and urban planning contexts and peculiarities. All walks are intergenerational, selected events are suitable for parents with children, and some will take place as bike rides. Entrance to all events is free. The program will start with a lecture by prominent London architect Adam Caruso and historian and theorist of architecture Laurent Stalder at the Světozor cinema on Thursday.

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