City Interventions Prague 2010
13 May – 30 Aug 2010
The City Interventions project is a professional and civic initiative.
It offers a service to city inhabitants, the provision of which
logically arises from the essence of educating an architect. This project is based on the finding that most city inhabitants are
convinced that architects do not do the most that can be expected from
them – i.e., that architects do not actively intervene in public
affairs, that they do not deal with the urban space that influences our
everyday movement and life in a city, that the architect (if he or she
manages to find a willing investor) only tries to build a personal
memorial regardless of its impact on the environment
City Interventions would like to change this opinion.
The first City Interventions project took place in Bratislava (www.mestskezasahy.sk)
on the premises of the Slovak National Gallery. This exhibition had the
highest attendance of all exhibitions of the Slovak National Gallery in
2008; it was later reinstalled on the footbridge of the New Bridge. The
project had a very positive reception – one of the designs made for the
exhibition is to be built. The success in Bratislava led directly to
the exhibition in Prague, and we hope that after Prague it will travel
to other cities.
City Interventions Prague
On February 20, 2010, 62 architecture studios were contacted based on their work. Their selection was not influenced by generational affinity (quite the contrary). The list of participants can be found below.
At the same time, the project was made public and open to all those interested.
Teams of architects were tasked to find a specific, public place within Prague's city development that, from their point of view, is problematic and which could be improved by an "architectural intervention". The extent of such intervention will be left to the architects’ own consideration. In any case, the project must be realistic, not a utopian study.
The project will often concern places that everybody seems resigned to, and there will certainly be cases where even a small change will result in a large effect.
This project would like to create a meeting space for as many opinions and views as possible; it should address city officials, city inhabitants, architects, and artists, pleasant pundits as well as leading experts. The project does not aim to generate profit or make bombastic promises – it is intended and designed to change something.
This project would like to create a meeting space for as many opinions and views as possible; it should address city officials, city inhabitants, architects, and artists, pleasant pundits as well as leading experts. The project does not aim to generate profit or make bombastic promises – it is intended and designed to change something.
www.mestskezasahy.cz
