Archtherapy - Lecture by Martin Rajniš

The second guest of the Archterapie cycle was Martin Rajniš, who helped launch the marathon of lectures at Kruh five years ago and has now become the first person invited by Kruh to come again. M.R., who left the academic environment in 1997 as a professor at VŠUP to fully devote himself to design practice, did not hesitate for a moment.
The lecture titled "Construction and the Right to Revolt" was divided into two one-hour blocks. In the first, heavy and theoretical part called "Revolt," he criticized the social conditions of the past decades, and in the second, lighter part named "Construction," he presented his own projects of rebellious houses. Even here, he mocked the unpopular "slugs." At the beginning, he offered refreshments to all attendees, which disappeared faster than the first lecture block ended. One refreshment was meant to rouse the audience's attention, while the other aimed to create a relaxed atmosphere.
He approached the theoretical part very earnestly and from the basics, recalling that in 1949, when he was five years old, he experienced his first spark in relation to the ruling government. He realized that a genius revolt is not a violent revolt after further unsuccessful battles, and thus decided to focus on architecture instead. With the help of the internet and his friends, he offered practical and theoretical ways for citizens to engage equally with authorities. His words did not provoke violence but rather a wave of permanent peaceful revolt. Two weeks before the parliamentary elections, M.R. worked his way through Čapek's allegorical newts (War with the Newts), robots (R.U.R.), to slugs (From the Life of Insects) suffocating this country. Thanks to Štěpán Liška, we also learned some Latin terms from legal theory. To lighten the atmosphere a bit before the break, M.R. shared stories about one of his distant journeys.
He began the second part by recalling his unsuccessful personal revolts. Gradually, he shifted the discussion to the revolt against planning, which he accompanied with amazing examples of world architecture without architects, and then presented several of his own projects of wooden houses, which, due to all the different "slugs," have remained on paper to this day. However, paragraph 103 of the new building law ultimately allowed him to realize some wooden constructions. One of these was erected last week near the cottage of our former prime minister.
Throughout, M.R. spoke about what troubles us all, what we have to live with, and what we face every day. He did not display any philosophical acrobatics or structural tricks but rather healthy thinking and a rational way of building.