O architecture more! No. 3: Funerary architecture
We cordially invite you to a discussion at the Czech Centre Prague (Rytířská 31, P1) on October 8, 2014, from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM, on the topic:
About Architecture More! No. 3: Funerary Architecture
Another in the series of discussion evenings on architectural topics with the magazine ERA21, moderated by Zuzana Morávková.
Almost every architect deals with this assignment in their life, but very few include these buildings in their portfolio. Not because they would have to be ashamed of them or because they are insignificant realizations in their life and work. In fact, it could be the opposite. However, it is a very personal topic that goes beyond ordinary architectural production. A topic that transcends the daily hustle in the studio, competition for contracts, the carousel of negotiations with clients and suppliers, family joys and worries, just all that well-known hustle. One could say – it is just another assignment like any other – and yet it is so different. A grave.
Many architects have designed and continue to design beautiful tombs for their friends, loved ones, and themselves. It is an assignment that is both minimal and monumental at the same time, where, on just a few square meters, we ask questions no less than about the meaning of existence. Just as the individual answers differ among various people on this question, so do the forms that express them. From large, vault-locked, and surely bulletproof family tombs to communicatively welcoming objects that allow for a moment of lingering, reflection, and rest, or light and recyclable bio-urns that transform the ashes of the deceased into a living tree, to simple nothingness.
This year marks the 140th anniversary of the new Italian health law that was the first in the Christian world to allow the cremation of the deceased in crematories. In the same year, the German engineer Frederic Siemens built and tested a furnace similar to today's cremation ovens. This year also marks exactly 100 years since the first Czech national crematorium was put into operation by an expatriate association in Chicago, and only 95 years since the law legalizing cremation was passed in then Czechoslovakia, which gave rise to today’s iconic buildings of modern architecture, the crematories in Pardubice, Nymburk, or Brno.
What is changing in our relationship with death today and what persists?
Discussants:
Vendula Hnídková is an architectural historian focusing on 19th and 20th-century architecture and design. She studied Art History at the Faculty of Arts of MU in Brno and is pursuing a doctorate in Theory and History of Design and Intermedia at the AAAD in Prague. Since 2005, she has been working at the Institute of Art History of the Czech Academy of Sciences. She is a member of the editorial board of the magazine ERA21 and a regular correspondent for the international architectural bimonthly A10. She is the author of publications such as National Style: Culture and Politics (Prague 2013), and Pavel Janák: Outline of an Era (Prague 2009). She is currently working on a grant project Moscow 1937 – Architecture and Propaganda in Western Perspective.
Jan Freiberg is a photographer and art curator. He studied photography in Pavel Baňka's studio at UJEP in Ústí nad Labem and History and Theory of Design and New Media at AAAD in Prague. He has worked as a photographer and curator of exhibitions at the Klatovy/Klenová Gallery, and since 2010, he has been the curator of the cemetery Gallery Goodbye in Volyně, where he publishes the eponymous mourning newspaper focused on the relationship between death, art, and architecture. He participated in the Husákovo 3 + 1 project or Revive Your House, founded the initiative Revive Strakonice, and the project Orchard Cultivation and Photography.
Jaroslav Wertig is an architect and a graduate of Ladislav Lábus's studio at the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University in Prague. Since 1997, he has been a partner at A69 – Architects studio. He was the editor of the yearbook Czech Architecture 2002–2003 and teaches at the private architectural school ARCHIP.
The evening is moderated by Zuzana Morávková – an architect and a graduate of the Faculty of Architecture of VUT in Brno. She works as an editor of the magazine ERA21.
More Information >
About Architecture More! No. 3: Funerary Architecture
Another in the series of discussion evenings on architectural topics with the magazine ERA21, moderated by Zuzana Morávková.
Almost every architect deals with this assignment in their life, but very few include these buildings in their portfolio. Not because they would have to be ashamed of them or because they are insignificant realizations in their life and work. In fact, it could be the opposite. However, it is a very personal topic that goes beyond ordinary architectural production. A topic that transcends the daily hustle in the studio, competition for contracts, the carousel of negotiations with clients and suppliers, family joys and worries, just all that well-known hustle. One could say – it is just another assignment like any other – and yet it is so different. A grave.
Many architects have designed and continue to design beautiful tombs for their friends, loved ones, and themselves. It is an assignment that is both minimal and monumental at the same time, where, on just a few square meters, we ask questions no less than about the meaning of existence. Just as the individual answers differ among various people on this question, so do the forms that express them. From large, vault-locked, and surely bulletproof family tombs to communicatively welcoming objects that allow for a moment of lingering, reflection, and rest, or light and recyclable bio-urns that transform the ashes of the deceased into a living tree, to simple nothingness.
This year marks the 140th anniversary of the new Italian health law that was the first in the Christian world to allow the cremation of the deceased in crematories. In the same year, the German engineer Frederic Siemens built and tested a furnace similar to today's cremation ovens. This year also marks exactly 100 years since the first Czech national crematorium was put into operation by an expatriate association in Chicago, and only 95 years since the law legalizing cremation was passed in then Czechoslovakia, which gave rise to today’s iconic buildings of modern architecture, the crematories in Pardubice, Nymburk, or Brno.
What is changing in our relationship with death today and what persists?
Discussants:
Vendula Hnídková is an architectural historian focusing on 19th and 20th-century architecture and design. She studied Art History at the Faculty of Arts of MU in Brno and is pursuing a doctorate in Theory and History of Design and Intermedia at the AAAD in Prague. Since 2005, she has been working at the Institute of Art History of the Czech Academy of Sciences. She is a member of the editorial board of the magazine ERA21 and a regular correspondent for the international architectural bimonthly A10. She is the author of publications such as National Style: Culture and Politics (Prague 2013), and Pavel Janák: Outline of an Era (Prague 2009). She is currently working on a grant project Moscow 1937 – Architecture and Propaganda in Western Perspective.
Jan Freiberg is a photographer and art curator. He studied photography in Pavel Baňka's studio at UJEP in Ústí nad Labem and History and Theory of Design and New Media at AAAD in Prague. He has worked as a photographer and curator of exhibitions at the Klatovy/Klenová Gallery, and since 2010, he has been the curator of the cemetery Gallery Goodbye in Volyně, where he publishes the eponymous mourning newspaper focused on the relationship between death, art, and architecture. He participated in the Husákovo 3 + 1 project or Revive Your House, founded the initiative Revive Strakonice, and the project Orchard Cultivation and Photography.
Jaroslav Wertig is an architect and a graduate of Ladislav Lábus's studio at the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University in Prague. Since 1997, he has been a partner at A69 – Architects studio. He was the editor of the yearbook Czech Architecture 2002–2003 and teaches at the private architectural school ARCHIP.
The evening is moderated by Zuzana Morávková – an architect and a graduate of the Faculty of Architecture of VUT in Brno. She works as an editor of the magazine ERA21.
More Information >
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