<aArchitektura uvádí: A1Architects</aArchitektura uvádí: A1Architects>Architectura states: A1Architects</aArchitectura>

A1Architects belongs to the best of what the young generation of architects has to offer in the current Czech scene. In this year’s Grand Prix of the Architects' Association, they received a prestigious award for the “Black Tea House,” and two years earlier, they won the national Grand Prix award for the interior of the “66 gallery.” With the motto “for more welcoming hospitals,” they have been dedicated for the third year to the non-profit organization Design Help, where they collaborate with designers to create jewelry and other products from unnecessary hospital materials, which they sell, and they use the proceeds to renovate unsatisfactory hospital spaces. From this activity, they also received the Editors’ Award at Designblok last year for an extraordinary achievement outside of the categories.

The beginnings of their collaboration date back to 2005 when the A1Architects studio and creative workshop began to take shape at the AAU in Prague, which today consists of Lenka Křemenová and David Maštálka, classmates from the architecture studio labeled A1. A year later, graphic designer Marta Maštálková joined the group of architects. Another classmate and architect, Jakub Filip Novák, was also among the original members, with whom they organized thematic lectures at the “Versus architects” association. Here, they invited not only architects but also personalities from various fields related to architecture. Interdisciplinarity, seeking topics, and creating their own answers, for example, through exhibitions, have become characteristic of A1.

A turning point for the direction of the studio was the two-month journey to Japan undertaken by Lenka and David. This journey determined not only the topic of David's diploma thesis – “Tea House in the Garden” but also deepened the contemplation of the size of living space for humans and working with scale. The result was the exhibition "Small House" in the VŠUP gallery, which has been repeated this year at the House of Art in České Budějovice. They say of the exhibition: "We decided to explore the topic of unlimited living in a limited space. The main driving force behind the whole work is the desire to find and design a house that, although small by conventional standards, hides a specific form of size within itself. Size is not fate, size is a choice."

The Japanese experience indirectly reflects in most of the projects that A1 is working on. They collaborate with freelance artists and seek interdisciplinary collaborations, thanks to which they are different and original.

Thursday, June 7, 2012, 7:00 PM
in the BLOK 12 space | www.blok12.cz
at J. A. Bati, Zlín 760 01
Admission: 50 CZK, students 30 CZK