Published issues

The wealth of some societies has introduced a debate around the necessity/correctness of using exclusively local stone and whether or not importing it from Africa or Asia amounts to an ideological transgression. EU regulations currently specify how far from its source stone may be used. Considering the current preference for local resources, it's likely that Villa Tugendhat would come in for criticism today. Ondřej Císler takes up this same theme with Vitruvius, when he describes his journey to China.

China has become a red (Red) thread running through this issue of INTRO. In China, or, more precisely, in Tibet, we found two great constructions. Helpful and accommodating colleagues from creative ateliers there had been faultless in their communication. I had already conducted two interviews with them (you can read them in this issue), when suddenly they went quiet for three weeks. Then, one day, their emails started to come again. That evening, I saw on the news that the Chinese Communist Party’s congress had taken place that very day. Apparently, in the weeks leading up to it university professors and certain other elements of Chinese society were forbidden to communicate with foreign journalists until after the Congress. So there you go.

Another trace of China can be found in the articles by stone masons and architects Ota Černý and Táni Kubiková, who focus on funeral architecture. It resonates once more in Ondřej Císler’s text and finally in the implementation of the cemetery in Dolní Břežany.

Once again, Central Europe is represented by Poland, joined this time by Slovenia. Each of our regular contributors, Monika Arczyńska and Marta Bujanda Miguel, chose buildings worthy of your attention. Then there’s Switzerland, Turkey and Chile….before a return to the Czech Republic with a stone construction at Železný Brod.

To conclude, I would like to thank František Skála for his introduction. I have followed his work, imbued with an endlessly renewing poetics, for many years with great pleasure. Still, the idea to reach out to him came from my son. “You’re writing about stone? Call Skála!”

Martin Verner, Editor in Chief