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WATER

INTRO 10 – 2019 – OCTOBER

In the tenth edition, you can look forward to another 152 great pages devoted to architecture. In this issue, we focus on the theme of water.

Print format 230 x 295 mm, 152 pages
Printed on uncoated, offset paper
Printed in Czech


Price with tax




EDITORIAL

Editorial

Friends,

In recent years, summer seems to arrive right on the heels of winter. By the time it slowly winds down, it’s already the end of October. What’s happened in the meantime? Slovakia has a nice new president. The activist Greta Thunberg took a boat to the UN. Charges of sexual harassment against actor Kevin Spacey were dropped, but his career has had it anyway. The Czech prime minister will not be prosecuted for fraud and continues to preside over the government. Prague terminated its sister city agreement with Beijing (or did Beijing terminate it with Prague?)… And so winter begins, with another pleasant half-year behind us.

You will all have understood my allusion to climate change, even though I’m cloaking it in amusing asides. I’m afraid, you see, that if I approach it too seriously, you might become numb to this theme due to over-saturation. And yet this is a topic with fatal consequences. Indeed, the fight is already underway, whether it’s over water (in the case of drought) or with it (in the case of rising sea levels).

No straightforward formula exists to address this complex situation in all its forms and contexts. We are dealing with interconnected, interwoven layers of global societies on an overpopulated planet. Still, architects are among those best equipped to deal rapidly with the manifestations of climate change. The erudition and opportunities are there. We can begin to protect ourselves now; it’s just a matter of raising consciousness. Accordingly, in this issue of INTRO, we’ve aimed for two things: to increase awareness and to showcase structures in which water is an integral part. Interviews with experienced specialists, placed fluidly throughout the magazine, tackle the theme from all angles. We hope you find their opinions as inspiring as we do.

Let’s save and conserve water. Let’s build barrels for rainwater under the eaves. Let’s really go for it and sink tanks. Let’s plant thousands and thousands of trees and shrubs, shading ourselves with green wherever it's possible to do so. Let’s embrace blue-green infrastructure and ensure sustainable water management in our cities. Then, even if the rainy years do come, no harm will be done. What will do harm is procrastination, bureaucratic red tape and dismissive hand waving. And let’s not forget common sense, so that we don’t commit lapses that will only cause further problems, no matter how good our intentions.

And so, if we manage to avoid sexual harassment and entanglements with Beijing (and whatever kind of relationship we have to Greta), I have the sense that if we proceed like this, we will deserve praise for acting responsibly.

Martin Verner, Editor in Chief


+read more
1/ Editorial

4/ A Call to Czech Architects

6/ Room for the River

18/ Interview: Zdeněk Zavřel

24/ Between the Flows

32/ Foreign Inspirations

34/ Blue-Green Tåsinge Square

40/ Living Water in Rybnik

48/ Landscaping Prague’s National Museum

58/ Revolution: Zdeněk Franek in conversation with Libor Musil

64/ A Floating Observatory

70/ Swirling Blue Planet

78/ A Prayer to the Sea

88/ In Search of Boundaries at the Water’s Edge

96/ Parting the Waters

104/ Fortress Terezín

108/ Retrospective: Locks

114/ Sutnarka: The Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art, University of West Bohemia

120/ From Earth to the Moon and Back Again

124/ Materials and Technology