To the Prostějov exhibition Ten Years of SENAA Architects

Last year, we commemorated ten years of fruitful collaboration between two classmates from the Brno Faculty of Architecture, Jan Sedláček and Václav Navrátil. In the autumn, the exhibition premiered in the birthplace of one of the co-founders of the studio. Specifically, it took place in the gallery spaces of the functionalist school in Kyjov, which Václav Navrátil attended. Now, in Prostějov, we are experiencing a second premiere. The city was not chosen by chance. It is the birthplace of the second co-founder of the SENAA office, Jan Sedláček.
What you can see in the exhibition space is a taste of ten years of diverse work by SENAA architects. It is a selection of grapes, ten examples demonstrating the breadth of their skills, from interior design to family houses, reconstruction of historical buildings, public buildings, and smaller urban complexes.
The venue of the exhibition is also not random. It is the building designed by the founder of modern Czech architecture, Jan Kotěra. At the time of completion of the Prostějov National House, its author was 37 years old. The co-founders of SENAA are not much older. We are standing in a space that its author designed down to the smallest detail, serving its purpose for over a century. This leads me to contemplate the impact of architecture on our lives. It silently stands for years, decades, and centuries. Yet it constantly addresses us and shapes our aesthetic demands. You cannot so easily close a poorly designed building like you would a poorly written book or shove it behind a wardrobe like a poorly painted picture. Architecture is always in our sight. It takes a long time to create and serves its purpose even longer. Therefore, buildings should receive enormous attention. Václav Navrátil was influenced, among others, by the functionalist school of Polášek in his hometown Kyjov. Jan Sedláček attended art courses in Prostějov, where he drew villas by Emil Králík, the town hall by Hugo Kepka, appreciated the beauties of OP Prostějov by Zdeněk Plesník, and for his entrance exams to the Brno Faculty of Architecture, he drew the functionalist Nehera Villa by Antonín Navrátil (the similarity in surnames is purely coincidental). He walked around these buildings and subconsciously perceived them.
In architecture, there is no single correct path. Solutions can take many forms. At the beginning, I mentioned Jan Kotěra as the founder of modern Czech architecture. A unified generational statement was perhaps possible at the time of detachment from the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and the founding of Czechoslovakia. Today, it is impossible to describe typical Czech or Central European architecture, which is a good thing. The contemporary scene is diverse, and each client can choose according to their own taste. You can embark on an architectural adventure with an experimenter, and the result will guarantee the attention of neighbors and the media. Everyone will turn to look at the building and it will be talked about. The disadvantage of this fashionable architecture is its seasonality; attention fades and tastes quickly become outdated. Not every client has the courage to embark on an adventure like in the case of the Dancing House by Frank Gehry. Not every building has the fortune to be eventually accepted by society despite initial controversies.
SENAA architects sensitively take in surrounding inputs. They transform them for a specific client, which is why the result fits so well into the environment as if it had been there forever. This is not a typical approach for young architects who want to freshly prove their ingenuity immediately after graduation. We should value their approach even more. The work of the SENAA studio aims to serve well and for a long time rather than to create short-lived attention and provoke. That is why some of their qualities may only be noticed upon closer inspection and over a longer period of use. SENAA creates a neutral background for a vibrant everyday life. Their work reflects the experience they gained in the studios of Ladislav Lábus, Petr Hrůša, Michaela Rotondi, or Antonín Novák. There are tasks for which school does not prepare you, and answers can only be gained through many years of practice. For ten years now, SENAA architects have been developing their handwriting. Diligently performed work enjoys success in the form that clients repeatedly return to them, and the scope of projects increases. Not abruptly, but naturally and calmly, just as is typical for their architecture, which guarantees stability for the coming decades. SENAA architects are succeeding in building in Prague, Brno, in the Kyjov area, and hopefully soon they will have the opportunity to demonstrate their skills in the birthplace of Jan Sedláček.