The Quality of Architecture in the Age of Real Estate Development: Zdeněk Fránek, Vladimír Krátký

VI PER Gallery invites you to a series of thematic discussions on architecture.

This gathering aims to bring the up-to-date and critical topic: the quality of architecture. We will discuss what exactly quality is and how to understand it: is it a matter of style, used materials or technologies, adequate functionality or for instance of the factor of a spot formation, city-formation? We intend to ask how to achieve quality and what influences it, all that in relation of architects to those who chiefly influence city construction today – real estate developers. Their, often huge, projects change the shape of our cities. What is their role when talking about the quality of architecture? What can an architect do or change? Panellists: Zdeněk Fránek and Vladimír Krátký. Come to gain intellectual inspiration and refine your thoughts!

Zdeněk Fránek (1961) is an architect and lecturer. He is the dean of the Faculty of Art and Architecture at the Technical University in Liberec. In 1989 he founded his own studio Fránek Architects. He publishes, designs projects and gives lectures both in the Czech Republic and abroad. His most important realisations are e.g. Sky Walk (Dolní Morava, 2015), the laboratories LIKO-NOE (Slavkov u Brna, 2015) or the gallery CCC Beijing (2012). Currently his name can be heard mostly in relation to the housing estate project Face House next to the Convent of St Agnes of Bohemia in Prague. http://www.franekarchitects.cz/.

Vladimír Krátký (1952) is an architect and lecturer. He is the head of the Elementary Architectural Design Studio at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague. In the early 1990s he was a visiting scholar at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, USA. Since 1995 he has been leading his own studio Ateliér Krátký. He used to be a member of the freely formed architectural group Středotlací, founded in 1987. One of his last realisations are e.g. the office buildings Enterprise Office Center (2015) and Futurama (2011). http://atelierkratky.cz/.

Thematic discussions on architecture. Always one Tuesday each month, two panellists and one hot issue. In the well-proven format of an academic debate: the stances introduction, discussion and audience questions. The aim of the series is to open important and serious issues and enable presentation of the stances of various, often contradictory sides, to confront different viewpoints with the opinions of experts, responsible officials and politicians. The lay and expert public will get the opportunity to get acquainted directly with the sides involved and ask questions. Each discussion has one covering topic.

Concept: Jiří Tourek.

Reviews: Tomáš Kodet, „Architektura má vzrušovat,“ zaznělo od Zdeňka Fránka ve Vi Peru, earch.cz, 2 March 2017 (Czech only).
Kateřina Čechová, O architektech a developerech (a taky o kvalitě a výjimečnosti), Era 21, 2017, no. 2, p. 11 (Czech only).