The old pheasant house was saved, the area was repaired ceramically, the slaughterhouse was transformed into an art gallery, footbridges, bridges, but also development construction. This is the selection of architect Pavel Nasadil for the 2022-2023 Czech Architecture yearbook. “My main criterion was to focus on such buildings that contributed to the surrounding environment and improved the life of society. Architecture should be a service to life,” he says.
The competition was huge. During the selection process, he had to orientate himself in 220 registered buildings. He visited about sixty of them personally and thus met their users or authors. “It is very valuable to see buildings, so to speak, live. Photographs often distort, either they are too good, or vice versa,” explains this year’s yearbook editor from the FAM architects studio. As he adds, he was thematically looking for buildings that contribute to their surroundings:
“I focused on buildings that work with public space and serve society. There are not only public contracts, but also those that had private contractors – there are, for example, two development projects in Modřany and Holešovice, which have added value towards the city, to the environment and the person.”
The yearbook also included places where architects tried to work with the surrounding landscape. A typical example is Bažantnice in the south of Bohemia. “It is a former summer house, now a private family home, but the significance of the project and the extent of the reconstruction is that, together with the house, the identity of the entire English park is being renewed. The owner is cleaning the roads there, restoring the views and the pheasant aviary, in other words giving something back to the place, ” adds Nasadil.
You can see all the selected buildings in the gallery.
Tags: Yearbook Czech architecture year
