To the roofs and to the underground! From Friday, the Architecture Day festival invites you to 450 events for free

Prague – Architectural gems, the most modern and forgotten buildings, palaces, former factories and bank houses, expeditions through towers, monasteries and churches, as well as bridges, but also sports stadiums, exhibition pavilions, and hospital buildings. On Friday, the largest architectural festival in our country, Architecture Day, will begin and will offer over 450 events across the Czech Republic and Slovakia for free until October 5. Visitors can choose from excursions to normally inaccessible buildings, architectural walks, or cycling trips led by architects, historians, and other experts on the given topics. There is also a program for children.

The motto of the 13th edition of the festival is Discover Construction! and the main program will focus on extraordinary construction solutions from various perspectives, both in historical architecture and in buildings from the 20th and 21st centuries. The program will guide participants through various architectural styles, from Baroque through Functionalism and Brutalism to contemporary architecture. Visitors can also follow in the footsteps of the exceptional representative of Baroque Gothic, Jan Blažej Santini-Aichel, whose death marks its 300th anniversary this year, and visit the works of one of the most prominent representatives of post-war architecture in our country – Karel Prager, who was born exactly 100 years ago. The festival program also includes the latest buildings and successful reconstructions.

The program is complemented by theatrical performances and concerts. For example, there will be a performance by the JEDL theater Santini or an original project by Jiří Havlíček, Petra Hůlová, and Petr Vrba Analysis of Housing.

The aim of the festival is to highlight quality architecture and present it in broader contexts, emphasizing post-war and contemporary architecture. Many events focus on the transformations of specific locations or the necessary changes in public spaces, both socially and in terms of sustainability. The events are realized in cooperation with local associations and architects.

Alongside Architecture Day, this year will also see the festival Film and Architecture. The complete program is available at www.denarchitektury.cz.

This year's main festival line is focused on interesting construction solutions in architecture. In Prague, interested persons can visit, for example, guided tours of the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University, Klementinum, the Pragovka complex, or Veleslavín Castle. In Brno, the program will focus, among other things, on the architecturally unique exhibition grounds or the Rondo sports hall, and allow visiting the building of the legendary Prior shortly before its demolition. In Ostrava, the festival will offer, among other things, a tour of the Lower Vitkovice area, and in Zlín, the Centroprojekt building will be opened to the public. In Mníšek pod Brdy, the organizers invite everyone into the rafters of St. Wenceslaus Church, and in Olomouc, there is an extraordinary opportunity to view the rafters of the town hall.

The program also includes extraordinary reconstruction solutions of historical buildings. For example, it will invite visitors to the newly reconstructed modernist Wenke House in Jaroměř by Josef Gočár, or to the town hall in Moravská Třebová, where unique construction technology from the turn of the 1950s and 60s rescued a significant Renaissance urban monument. Other festival routes will lead through former factories, such as the weaving mill in Náměšť nad Oslavou, the thread mill in Kyjov near Krásná Lípa, the Tesla factory in Lanškroun, the weaving mill in Lomnice nad Popelkou, the historical paper mill in Vrané nad Vltavou, or the former spinning mill in Strakonice.

Contemporary Architecture

The festival program regularly tracks the most current architectural achievements and will present several projects nominated this year for the Czech Architecture Award, which will be presented by their architects. This will provide a glimpse into the new municipal house Skalička, the newly constructed town hall of the town of Lázně Bělohrad, or the wooden residence of Kloboucké lesní in Bylnice. The authors will personally present the new footbridge in Litomyšl or the water tower with a view of the castle in Markvartice near Sobotka. The program in many locations will also be complemented by exhibitions showcasing buildings nominated for the Czech Architecture Award. Furthermore, the festival program invites visitors to the newly opened chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows in Nesvačilce near Brno or the headquarters of the Lasvit glassworks in Nový Bor.

In the Footsteps of Jan Blažej Santini-Aichel

The festival will trace the legacy of the genius architect and exceptional representative of Baroque Gothic, Jan Blažej Santini-Aichel, whose death marks its 300th anniversary this year, across various locations in the Czech Republic. In addition to famous works, it will also focus on lesser-known buildings and structures that bear Santini's handwriting.
It will visit the monastery church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in Želiv, and the Church of the Holy Trinity in Žďár nad Sázavou, the Karlova Koruna Castle in Chlumec nad Cidlinou, the monastery church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Kladruby, the pilgrimage church of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, and a normally inaccessible castle in Lázně Bělohrad. In Hradec Králové, it will offer tours of the oldest ecclesiastical buildings, the Chapel of St. Clement, which Santini reconstructed from Gothic to Baroque, and the bishop's residence. Thanks to the festival, the public can also visit normally inaccessible farm buildings like Hubenov or Kalec. Architecture Day will also follow Santini's traces in Prague. Among other things, it will be possible to visit the Church of Our Lady Mother of Perpetual Help and St. Cajetan, where Santini's normally inaccessible staircase will be on display.

Following Karel Prager, Known and Unknown

This year, Architecture Day also commemorates the 100th anniversary of Karel Prager's birth, whose name is mainly associated with the international trend of Brutalism. However, the program will cover his entire creative period, from early works to visionary approaches. During the festival, interested parties can visit, for example, the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences, the complex of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University in Troja, or the former headquarters of the Association of Design Studios (currently the headquarters of IPR). The program will also present Prager's non-Prague realizations, such as the Cultural House in Veselí nad Lužnicí and the Cultural House in Březnice, which reflect his characteristic style. The festival will also highlight his work in the style of Socialist Realism in the 1950s. In Strakonice and Ostrava-Poruba, it will showcase housing blocks, and in Otrokovice, an experimental panel house.

Theatrical Performances and Concerts

The festival annually offers accompanying programs. The work of Jan Blažej Santini-Aichel will be recalled in Prague, Hradec Králové, and Žďár nad Sázavou by the JEDL theater. The production of Santini directed by Jan Nebeský, featuring Lucie Trmíková and Miloslav König, maps significant Santini realizations in the sacred buildings of Bohemia and Moravia as part of the intervention into the space of sacred structures. This year's anniversary of Santini will also be commemorated by a concert of Czech Radio Vltava in Karlova Koruna in Chlumec nad Cidlinou. In Prague at the newly constructed Technology Center UMPRUM and in Brno in the unique space of the former Prior, there will be an original project by Jiří Havlíček, Petra Hůlová, and Petr Vrba Analysis of Housing, which will examine the functioning of public space as a site of activism through a performance on the border of spoken word, experimental music, and video.

Lectures

In addition to excursions and architectural walks, the Architecture Day festival offers dozens of lectures dedicated not only to the architecture of Karel Prager, Jan Blažej Santini-Aichel, or Ivar Otruba, whose work is commemorated this year. The program features a variety of other lectures by personalities from the Czech Republic and abroad that will focus on specific buildings as well as entire urban complexes from architectural, urbanistic, and sociological viewpoints. The program in Prague, among other things, will include a lecture by Radomíra Sedláková on the legacy of Karel Prager and Vladimír 518 concerning post-war architecture in the unique brutalist sports hall Folimanka. A lecture by Maxim Forest, a French specialist on Le Corbusier's architecture, will be held directly at Volman's villa in Čelákovice. The program in Opava will present a lecture on the position of female architects in the First Republic. Another lecture, led by Lina Degtiarova, co-founder of the Uzhhorod Modernism project, will focus on Ukrainian architecture during the Russian war.

Children's Program

The festival traditionally considers parents with children as well. Across the country, the program offers various workshops where children can try their hand at architecture or different artistic techniques. Specific locations can be discovered through adventurous scavenger hunts.

Film and Architecture Festival

In parallel with Architecture Day, the international film festival Film and Architecture is taking place. Its 12th edition will take place from September 29 to October 4, 2023, in 26 cities across the country, in Slovakia, and in Berlin. This year it will present 38 short and feature films focused on architecture, city creation, and design in four festival sections - Construction, Limits of Originality, Personas, and Inspiration by Adam Štěch. There will also be discussions with creators, lectures, and other special events. The program is available at www.filmarchitektura.cz.

Both festivals are organized by the association Kruh, which draws from over two decades of experience in the field
and long-term cooperation with architects, associations, and institutions in all regions. During the 13 years of the festival's existence, approximately 240 cities in the Czech Republic and Slovakia have participated. Architecture Day is traditionally held on the occasion of World Architecture Day, which occurs on the first Monday in October.

Locations in the Czech Republic and Slovakia:

Adolfov-Větrov, Banská Bystrica, Bardejov, Bílovec, Boskovice, Bratislava, Brno, Brumov-Bylnice, Březnice, Bublava, Bylany near Kutná Hora, Čáslav, Čelákovice, České Budějovice, Český Krumlov, Chlumec nad Cidlinou, Chotouň, Dobříš, Dolní Maxov, Galanta, Gelnica, Hradec Králové, Hodonín, Hodslavice, Humpolec, Jablonec nad Nisou, Jaroměř, Jičín, Jihlava, Jindřichův Hradec, Kamenický Šenov, Karlovy Vary, Kladno, Kladruby, Klatovy, Kolín, Kopřivnice, Košice, Kralovice, Krásná pod Lysou horou, Kroměříž, Kutná Hora, Kyjov u Krásné Lípy, Kremnica, Krupina, Lanškroun, Lázně Bělohrad, Liberec, Lidice, Lipnice nad Sázavou, Litoměřice, Litomyšl, Litovel, Lomnice nad Popelkou, Mariánské Lázně, Markvartice u Sobotky, Martin, Mělník, Mikulov, Mnichovo Hradiště, Mníšek pod Brdy, Moravská Třebová, Most, Náchod, Náměšť nad Oslavou, Nesvačilka, Nitra, Nový Bor, Nymburk, Olomouc, Ondřejovice in Jeseníky, Opava, Opočno, Ostopovice, Ostrava, Otrokovice, Pardubice, Partizánske, Pavlov, Piešťany, Písek, Plzeň, Plavecký Štvrtok, Poděbrady, Poprad, Prague, Prostějov, Příbram, Rajecké Teplice, Roudnice nad Labem, Rožnov pod Radhoštěm, Ružomberok, Řevnice, Sázava, Semily, Skalička, Slaný, Slavonice, Stoječín, Strakonice, Šediviny, Šaľa, Štiavnica, Šumperk, Tábor, Teplice, Terezín, Topoľčany, Trenčín, Třebíč, Turnov, Týn nad Bečvou, Týn nad Vltavou, Uherské Hradiště, Uherský Brod, Ústí nad Labem, Ústí nad Orlicí, Valašské Meziříčí, Varnsdorf, Velké Losiny, Veselí nad Lužnicí, Vimperk, Volyně, Vratislavice nad Nisou, Vranov nad Dyjí, Vrané nad Vltavou, Vysoké Mýto, Vysoké Tatry, Zlín, Žamberk, Žatec, Žebrák, Želiv, Zvolen, Žďár nad Sázavou, Žihle, Žilina