1. Jana Tichá
Green
Architecture
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2. Photo: a. lhotáková
Photo: a. lhotáková
Grau, teurer Freund, ist alle Theorie, und grün
des Lebens goldner Baum.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust I, l. 2038
‘All theory is grey, my friend. But forever
green is the tree of life.’ These words put by
Goethe into the mouth of Mephistopheles
have become a well-known line. Green is a
metaphor of the life-giving forces of nature
which man cannot fully master. Although
human life is limited by nature, or perhaps
because of it, man tries to stand up to it in
many ways. Self-determination in relation to nature is one of the foundations
of Western civilisation, whose attempts
to create abstract systems, culminating in
the modernity project1, have been widely
The term used by the author, ‘moderne project‘, can
be translated in several ways. The most appropriate
seems to be ‘modernity project‘ which covers a number
of phenomena that the writer refers to: the concept of
modernity founded on the philosophy of the Enlightenment, achievements of the Industrial Revolution, and
aesthetic tendencies of modernism (Pol. trans. note).
1
discussed2. In architecture respect for the
natural environment and the need to comply
with its demands have been obvious for a
long time. Knowledge of how to build so
that the construction could withstand the
forces of nature and how to choose the most
convenient spot to carry out a project was
essential in the architect’s profession3. With
the process of modernisation, however, the
tendency to standardise construction technologies grew, and the natural environment
was treated as something to be optimized:
nature was to be subordinated to construc-
Problems of representing the real world through
abstract systems with regard to their relations to architecture are undertaken, in phenomenological terms,
by Dalibor Veselý, in his interesting work Architektura ve
věku rozdělené reprezentace, Praha: Academia, 2008 (ibid.
Architecture in the Age of Divided Representation, Cambridge,
Mass.: MIT Press, 2004).
3
Cf., e.g., the fundamental theoretical handbook
for European architecture: A. Palladio, I quattro libri
dell’architettura, Venezia, 1570, Am. ed.: ibid., The Four
Books of Architecture, transl. R. Schofield, R. Tavernor,
Cambridge, MA.: The MIT Press, 2002.
2
Projektil architekti, headquarters of an NGO, Brno, 2012
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3. Photo: a. lhotáková
Photo: a. lhotáková
Projektil architekti, Sluňákov Centre for Ecological
Activities, Olomouc, 2007
tion, and not vice versa4. After World War II
the modernity project, with its characteristic
technology-oriented (and technology-mediated) approach to the world showed some cracks
through which some previously neglected
aspects of reality penetrated into the society’s and specialists’ minds. One of those was
environmental degradation resulting from
modernisation processes. Respect for the environment and living in harmony with nature
were some of the major postulates of liberal
movements in the United States and Western
Europe in the 1960s5. Initially, this attitude
was treated by the majority of the society as a
part of an alternative, ‘romantic’ way of life6,
but the oil crisis of 1973 made decision makers
consider concrete political, economic and
financial questions related to the natural environment. ‘Hard data’ of the influence of modern civilisation on the state of non-renewable
natural resources had been published a year
earlier in the text The Limits to Growth7. Since
the 1970s there has been a gradual convergence
of the ‘romantic’ and the ‘technical’ approaches to the natural environment. New objectives
were expressed through the principles of the
‘sustainable development’ policy agreed in
the programme document Agenda 21 at the 1992
4
Modern tendencies towards homegenisation of the
environment are evocatively described by Rem Koolhaas
in: Generické město, ‘Zlatý řez’ 2010, No. 32, p. 20 and n.
(cf., ibid., Generic City, [in]: ibid., S,M,L,XL, New York: The
Monacelli Press, 1995, p. 1248 and n.).
5
At the UNESCO conference in San Francisco in 1969
John McConnell pointed out that it was necessary to
raise public awareness of the importance of the natural
environment and proposed to hold Earth Day: a global
event which would not only celebrate the planet and its
life-giving forces but would also be an opportunity to
draw public attention to ecological issues. First Earth Day
was celebrated a year later, on 22 April 1970. Today it is
observed in 192 countries throughout the world. Source:
http://www.earthday.org/about-earth-day-network (access: 22 June 2012).
The opposition between the ‘romantic’ versus ‘technical’
approaches to the world as regards ecological issues is a
relatively frequent topic of discussions. Some authors
viewing it from a historical perspective stress two basic
trends in ecological architecture in the Western civilisation: Barbora Krejčová refers to them as ‘romanticising’
and ‘technicising’, cf. B. Krejčová, Průkopníci ekologické
architektury, ‘Era 21’ 2008, No. 4, p. 54.
7
D.H. Meadows, D.L. Meadows, The Limits to Growth, New
York: Universe Books, 1972,
Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro8. Currently,
ecological issues are (at least in principle)
an integral part of almost any project and
investment, including architectural ones.
Despite this fact, the terminology of these
issues has not been standardised yet, and even
in academic discourse we can come across the
metaphorical expression ‘green architecture’
used for example in the catalogue of the first
collective exhibition of ‘ecologically aware’,
energy-efficient architecture in the Czech
Republic compiled by Petr Kratochvíl9.
In the Czech Republic it was only recently that
issues related to ecology and the natural environment started to feature prominently in
architects’ discussions. In this respect the year
2008 seems crucial as it was then that, apart
In the field of architecture and building the document
titled Agenda 21 on Sustainable Construction, published in 1999
by an international institution CIB (International Council
for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction) in response to the general Agenda 21, is of key importance, cf. Agenda 21 pro udržitelnou výstavbu, Praha: ČVUT,
2001 (edition in English available on: http://cic.vtt.fi/eco/
cibw82/a21.htm, access: 4 Oct. 2013; Eng. trans. note).
9
Zelená architektura.cz. Katalog výstavy, ed. P. Kratochvíl,
Praha: GJF, 2008. The exhibition was prepared under
research project GA AV IAA800330701.
8
6
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4. Non-governmental LEED (LEED Green Building Rating System, Green Building Council
with the seat in Washington13) and BREEAM
10
Especially: P. Suske, Ekologická architektura ve stínu
moderny, Brno: ERA, 2008, and the thematic issue of the
magazine ‘Era 21’ titled Udržitelnost v architektuře, ‘Era 21’
2008, No. 4.
11
Zelená architektura..., op. cit., p. 56 and n.
12
The conditions to obtain financial support for the use
of energy efficient technologies and renewable energy
sources in housing are specified in: Směrnice MŽP”
2009, No. 9. Users can also refer to a manual: M. Báčová,
Manuál energeticky úsporné architektury, Praha: Státní fond
životního prostředí a česká komora architektů, 2010.
13
www.usgbc.org (access: 25 June 2012).
14
Photo: ap ateliér
mandating agencies (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method,
a branch office of BRE Global with the seat in
Great Britain14) are trying to popularise the
idea of ‘Sustainable Building’ in a broader
sense. They are current global systems of certification, used to assess public utility buildings.
Assessment criteria are varied and not limited
to the building’s energy balance but also take
into account the project management process,
users’ health and comfort (including temperature regulation, access to fresh air, workplace
layout and anti-reflective glass windows), accessibility of the site, choice of recyclable and
health risk free materials, quality of terrain,
water consumption monitoring, waste-water
treatment technologies etc. The first building in the Czech Republic that was LEED gold
certified is the edifice of ČSOB (Československá
obchodní banka) in Radlice, designed by Josef
Pleskot and AP Ateliér, an office of one of the
major Czech banks situated in a small town,
employing over 2500 people. The design of the
building whose forcefulness and function is
symbolic of modern civilization may not be
inconsistent with the principles of sustainable development. The designer, Josef Pleskot,
refers to the ethics of ecology, which makes us
Photo: ap ateliér
from the catalogue and exhibition compiled by
Petr Kratochvíl, other publications also came
out10. That year the winner of the Grand Prix
Obce architektů, a prize awarded by the most
prestigious review of contemporary architecture in the Czech Republic, was the edifice
of Centrum ekologické výchovy Sluňákov
(Sluňákov Centre for Ecological Education,
2007) designed by Roman Brychta, Ondřej Hofmeister, Petr Lešek and Adam Halíř (Projektil
architekti). The construction and technological solutions used in the building correspond
to the purpose it is to serve. It uses largely
energy-efficient solutions: heat recovery in the
air conditioning system, solar hot water heating collectors, pellet stoves, cold collectors, a
waste water recycling system and a rainwater
collection system. Besides these active energy
efficiency solutions in the building, there are
also passive ones: a glazed southern façade and
insulation with an earth bank in the north
provide optimal thermoregulation inside the
building11. Sluňákov was a kind of showcase
for technologies which were soon adopted in
housing, mainly owing to financial support
under the government programme ‘Zelená
úsporám’ agreed in 200912. However, ecological
aspects of architecture in it are restricted to
energy efficiency, and when possible, obtaining it from renewable energy sources.
Photo: ap ateliér
Josef Pleskota, AP Ateliér, ČSOB (Československá
obchodní banka) building, Radlice, 2008
www.breeam.org (access: 25 June 2012).
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5. Photo: arc@arc.cz
Photo: arc@arc.cz
Photo: arc@arc.cz
Oldřich Hozman, ARC Studio, House with an Atrium,
Řičany, 2007
careful, sensitive and economic, and brings us
also into harmony with nature15. The architect
is optimistic about the possibility of combining
ecology with technology; he believes that ‘ecology is in a close relationship to technology’16.
Despite institutional attempts to standardize and establish clear qualification criteria,
‘green architecture’ is still characterized by
a variety of designing strategies. The author
of the first Czech publications on ecological
architecture and many productions based on
its principles, Petr Suske, observes that ‘from
the point of view of ecology, globalisation of
architecture and its universalisation may be a
greater problem than rainforest logging’17. To
Suske, an ecological house ‘must respect specific local features, including the climatic conditions in a given region, its cultural context
and social needs’18. These views are reflected
in his designs where he makes use of experimental technologies and local materials, such
as raw brick in the Hliněná basta (Clay Turret)
restaurant in Průhonice (1997) or bunches of
straw to insulate Dům v kožichu s deštníkem
(Sheepskin-Clad House with an Umbrella) in
Mlada Boleslavi (2002). Oldřich Hozman19, who
is a follower of Rudolph Steiner’s anthroposophy and the so-called Baubiologie, the science of
a holistic approach to relations between man
and man-made environment which developed
P. Suske, op. cit., p. 8.
Ibid., p. 120.
19
Cf., e.g., O. Hozman, Cesta k celostnímu utváření prostředí,
‘Zlatý řez’ 2011, No. 34, s. 52 and n.; ibid., Co lze vnímat
pod pojmem zdravé prostředí. Víceúrovňové vlastnosti prostoru a
materiálů, [in:] Zdravé domy. Sborník mezinárodní konference,
Brno: Fakulta architektury, 2009, and n.
17
18
R. Koryčánek, Domy z meziprostoru, Praha: Galerie Zdeněk
Sklenář, 2007, p. 6.
16
J. Tichá, J. Pleskot, Rozhovor, ‘Zlatý řez’ 2009 , No. 31, p.
52.
15
in Germany in the 1960s20, pays particular attention to natural materials and their quality.
Oldřich Hozman’s productions are mostly detached houses (House with an Atrium, Řičany,
2007, House in Lány, 2012) and reconstructions
and adaptations of existing buildings (Maitrea
House of Personal Development, Prague, 2008)
to energy-efficiency standards of a ‘healthy
house’ requiring a wide use of natural materials, such as raw bricks, wood, straw or reed.
These materials are an enormous challenge for
the present-day architecture. Modernist architectural concepts were apprehensive about
using these materials due to their composite
nature which made them difficult to standardise and to oversee the building process, and
made it difficult to predict how the building
will age. In recent years, however, with rising
interest in ecological aspects of construction and energy efficiency (as well as equally
important cost saving during construction),
these materials have started to attract more
20
The principles of Baubiologie were formulated by Hubert
Palm, trained as a medical doctor, in the publication Das
gesunde Haus. Unser nächster Umweltschutz, Konstanz: OrdoVerlag, 1979.
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6. visitor in any place, which can be understood
both literally and metaphorically because the
productions portfolio of ‘natural architecture’
contains both Scholzberg vantage towers in
Horni Maxov (2006) and Bára in Chrudimi
(2009), the New Post Office on Mt Sněžka
(2007) and the building of the Municipal Forest Holding in Písek (2011).
The history of ecological trends in Czech architecture is short but extremely dynamic. What
was considered by the majority of architects in
the 1990s as a radical approach stemming from
personal beliefs, has since become part of the
mainstream, regardless of whether ecological
awareness is manifested in a total approach
to the natural environment or in the use of
advanced technologies. Relations between
architecture and ecology may vary in form,
and ‘green architecture’ may have various
meanings. Should we give priority to energy
efficiency of the building itself or try to build
it in an energy efficient way with energy efficient materials to begin with? Is it more important to develop new technologies to control
building interiors, or rather do without them
and return to traditional solutions dating back
to the time before the industrial revolution?
Should we radically change our lifestyles and
our constructions, or merely adapt present-day
buildings? This is how the future of ecological
architecture is perceived by one of its makers, ‘It is also possible that architecture called
«ecological» will not emerge at all, because
More on this topic cf. D. Hlaváček, Přírodní materiály:
historie nebo naděje?, ‚Zlatý řez‘ 2011, No. 34, pp. 6 and n.
22
Convincing arguments that the Czech architecture has
been dominated by the ‘realistic’ and ‘utilitarian’ trends
can be found in the publication by Rostislav Švácha Česká
architektura a její přísnost, Praha: Prostor, 2004.
23
Cf. I. Fialová, J. Tichá, M. Rajniš, Přirozená architektura /
Natural Architecture, ‘Zlatý řez’ 2008, p. 49.
21
English translation
by Anna Mirosławska-Olszewska
24
P. Suske, dz. cyt., s. 9.
Photo: a. lhotáková
Architectural experiment is not traditionally
embedded in the Czech culture, and architecture as a conceptual discipline practised side
by side with utilitarian productions has practically no history there22. As a result, radical
attempts to find the ‘zero point’ in architecture are the more conspicuous, for instance
Martin Rajniš’s works completed since the
beginning of the 21st century. Rajniš justifies his idea of a revolution in architectural
culture by expressing his belief that modern
design and building embedded in modernist
concepts is by its very nature opposed to the
idea of ‘sustainable development’. Rajniš’s
designs, revealing how the revolution should
be implemented, are often at the confluence
of architecture and fine arts. Experience of
travelling to places inhabited by communities
that remain far apart from the achievements
of modern, industrial civilisation, inspired
Rajniš to radically reevaluate relations between nature and culture in architecture and
to formulate Manifest přirozené architektury (A
Manifesto for Natural Architecture)23, which makes
use of natural materials, simple technologies,
and adapts to the local climatic conditions and
topography. To Martin Rajniš a house is a mobile shelter for a human nomad who is just a
its principles will become an intrinsic part of
reflection on architecture in general’24.
Photo: a. lhotáková
and more attention. Wooden architecture is
particularly notable in this respect21. In the
Czech Republic wood has been used mainly in
housing and detached houses construction.
The scope of this technology is limited by fire
regulations and other conditions. Due to availability and flexibility, wood is often used in
alternative and experimental designs.
Martin Rajniš, Patrik Hoffman, New Post Office
on Mt Sněžka, 2007
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