Lectures "Olomouc - genius loci?" and "Our Contemporary Parks"

OLOMOUC - GENIUS LOCI?
In which Olomouc would I like to live?
Wednesday, January 27, 2010, at 18:00, Music Theatre Olomouc

We hear many things about Olomouc: a place in the center of Europe, an ancient pearl of Moravia, an attractive spot for tourists, a city of parks, a city rich in culture, … Does Olomouc have its own spirit that shapes its atmosphere? And if so, what is it? How can it be preserved and what is its significance? What threatens it?
How do local personalities of public life perceive their city?
And how should Olomouc be in the future according to them?
Public discussion.

Confirmed participants:
Milan Tichák (historian)
Jakub Potůček (art historian)
Radek Pavlačka (landscape architect)

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OUR CONTEMPORARY PARKS
ZDENĚK SENDLER
Tuesday, February 9, 2010, at 18:00, Music Theatre Olomouc

The charm of the Czech landscape is significantly influenced by sensitive human interventions in many places. This effort for landscape architecture has not ended in the past; there are still landscapes and people today where ideas that emphasize the charm of the places are gently created in their mutual dialogue, or where their charm is reborn, perhaps damaged by less sensitive human interventions. A talk about parks and their creation, about the city, about people, feelings, about life, using photographs. Zdeněk Sendler will present, for example, the Monastery Gardens in Litomyšl, Slovan Square in Brno, Lann Park in Prague, The Castle Garden in Jičín, Bjornson Park in Brno. About the parks he shaped, he says: “... they can be used for regular recreation, playing in playgrounds or musical instruments, reading, drinking, or smoking. Of course, they are also for animals. They are simply for everyone, without discrimination. We do not like restrictions or limits... in the ratio of that creative, exciting, creative time with the amazing feeling that something is happening and we are moving something forward, and that fact of wasted and unnecessary time, which unfortunately prevails, and not thanks to us.”
Dipl. Ing. Zdeněk Sendler (1956 under the sign of Sagittarius, monkey), a licensed architect, is one of the most significant Czech landscape architects. He works in Brno at the Atelier of Garden and Landscape Architecture. He trained at a garden vocational school in Rajhrad, specializing in ornamental horticulture, at the Secondary School of Horticulture in Brno Bohunice, focusing on gardening - floristry, and at the Mendel University in Lednice, Faculty of Horticulture, specializing in garden and landscape design. He worked at the State Farm in Mikulov, design Brno - Modřice, at the Institute of Landscape Architecture in Průhonice near Prague, and now works at the Atelier of Garden and Landscape Architecture in Brno. He teaches at universities and publishes. His hobbies include architecture, film, archery, cycling, beekeeping, and sports convertibles. He is the author of many parks, their realizations, and designs, for example, the Park - Natural Cathedral in Brno was awarded the prestigious Grand Prix OA 1994, Denis Gardens in Brno in cooperation with Atelier Brno (Grand Prix OA 2004), Božena Němcová Park in Karviná (study, documentation, honorary mention Grand Prix OA 2000), the park "Novomlýnská" in Prague (Park of the Year 2008 award, Václav Weinfurter Award for Best Park Project), the Monastery Garden in Litomyšl, which visitors of the city appreciate for its functionality, has received several significant awards and has been published in prestigious architectural publications, most recently in a selection of the best European realizations from 2000 - 2005 (European Landscape Architecture - Edition Topos, Callwey Verlag München).