World architects will arrive in Liberec

They intentionally realize their buildings outside traditional centers. Some have become architectural terms, such as those by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma or Swiss architect Luigi Snozzi. Both will lecture on March 14–15, 2014, at the international conference Architecture Beyond Centers, organized by our Faculty of Art and Architecture in cooperation with the civic society Architecture at the Regional Gallery in Liberec. The international plenary of architects will also name the architects' studio in the university building F "Karel Hubáček Studio".
The two-day conference is the conclusion of the eponymous project Architecture Beyond Centers, which the team from our Faculty of Architecture has been working on for two years. The project, co-financed by the European Social Fund and the state budget of the Czech Republic, aimed to map and showcase quality and exceptional contemporary architecture built after 1989 in places that are far from traditional centers and are often undeservedly sidelined, in the position of "invisible outsiders". The project team explored world architecture beyond centers directly on site:
“We looked around Europe and the world. We know well that quality architecture can be found even in remote areas of Central European countries. It is also carefully monitored by Czech architects, who often take lessons from these countries for their own work. However, from their point of view, more distant European countries, such as Norway, which offers a plethora of great buildings and interesting new faces, often disappear,” says Jiří Suchomel, the main guarantor of the project from the Faculty of Art and Architecture TUL.
Therefore, the two-day conference will be a meeting place for experts from various countries who have also contemplated the themes of architecture beyond centers. Among the speakers will be world-renowned architects Kengo Kuma from Japan and Luigi Snozzi from Switzerland.
Kengo Kuma is known as a creator who reinterprets the tradition of Japanese buildings in his works in the 21st century ‒ returning to traditional materials and methods. For Luigi Snozzi, the essential urban realization is in the town of Monte Carasso, “which he transformed through his interventions from a fragmented settlement into a place where its inhabitants can identify, where architecture is not an annoyingly fashionable affair but is thoughtful and adherent to its purpose, and yet full of poetry,” characterizes project team member Petr Šmídek, adding: “Kuma and Snozzi lecture and build all over the world; they are the main stars of our conference. Through them, we also want to attract a wider audience to become interested in less media-known creators, whose work is equally interesting.”
Kengo Kuma will present his contribution “The Power of Place” on Friday, March 14 at 2:30 PM, and Luigi Snozzi will present the topic “Monte Carasso: Rediscovering Place” on Saturday at 9:30 AM.
“I am also personally pleased with the arrival of Antoni Domicz, who strives for quality architecture in the small Polish town of Opole, and the participation of Carme Pigem, the only woman presenting at the conference, who with her studio RCR created an oasis of modern architecture in the forgotten Mediterranean of Spain. They are the true workers of architecture who should encourage conference participants that it makes sense to strive for quality architecture in the countryside and small towns,” adds Petr Šmídek.
Nordic architecture will also be represented at the conference, as mentioned by Jiří Suchomel: “New Norwegian architecture will be represented at the conference by Todd Saunders, author of surprising buildings in the Norwegian landscape. Representatives of the Estonian team KAVAKAVA, Siiri Vallner and Indrek Peil, will present their work as a sample of distinctive architecture in the Baltic countries. This region is little known to us, just like South American Chile with its distinctive new architecture, both regions deserve significantly more attention,” adds Professor Suchomel.
In addition to Jiří Suchomel, other architects from the co-organizing Faculty of Art and Architecture of the Technical University in Liberec, such as Zdeněk Fránek or Antonín Novák, will also contribute their words to the two-day conference program. Conference participants will also open the exhibition “Czech and Slovak Architecture Beyond Centers” on Friday at noon at the Regional Gallery in Liberec. On Friday at 7:00 PM, they will also remember the late ninetieth birthday of Karel Hubáček in the studio of Liberec architecture – on this occasion, the faculty studio in university building F will be named “Karel Hubáček Studio”. We will recall the connection of Karel Hubáček with the Liberec Faculty of Architecture at T-UNI in one of our future contributions.

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