Edito + Intro (I): New Architecture and Urban Regeneration in Czechia

Text: Ștefan Ghenciulescu

The Czech Republic is one of those fortunate countries where the quality of architecture and public space seems inversely proportional to the size of its territory and population.

Interview: Ștefan Ghenciulescu
Photography in the factories: Marius Vasile

Introduction. Three discussions about design, industry, and strategies

The house in Mogoșoaia lies is in an average-density, mainly residential area, with low-rise individual houses. The rectangular plot, its short sides to the north and south, is situated between the Mogoșoaia forest and lake, neighbouring the sports complex of the same name.

A Jewish family in ’30s Prague. A great architect. A historical tragedy. Then another one. An adventure-book discovery. A retrieval and a rebuilding with one’s own hands. Today, a living house.

The biggest architectural event of the year in South-East Europe is coming up.

Text: Cristian Bădescu, Vlad Dumitrescu
Foto: Vlad Dumitrescu, Marius Vasile, Cristian Bădescu, arhiva fam. Cocioabă

De-cityfication: the reality of expanding urban characteristics outside cities, paradoxically leading to un-city-like forms of urbanism.

The extension of an industrial building in the Swiss city of Winterthur. „Extending the Cycle” project received the Global and the European Prize at the 2021 Holcim Awards – the main global competition for sustainable design.

The Serpentine House (Finnish: Käärmetalo) is one of the best-known residential developments in post-war Helsinki – among other merits, it has been listed by DOCOMOMO as a significant example of modern architecture in Finland.

Seaweed on the roof, and bricks filled-in with earth from the building site excavation. This small and compact dwelling block happily blends timeless rationalism and regionalism, climate- and social appropriate thinking and smart inventions. A model.

Doina Petrescu teaches Architecture and Design Activism at the University of Sheffield and, together with Constantin Petcou, founded Atelier d’Architecture Autogérée, a platform-association intersecting architecture, participative urban planning, activism, acting as a device for addressing societal issues through the participative activation of unused spaces.

At least three of the words I used in the title raise questions beyond the aesthetic register. First, ‘guild’. The idea of belonging to a ‘professional group with common interests’ (a possible definition of the guild) contains a cultural anachronism