You are what you eat. This motto from an early-2000s reality TV show can be rephrased into something even more telling: you are the culture you consume. But can culture really be consumed? Misunderstanding culture as an object of consumption leads to its degradation into mere leisure entertainment—and misses the meaning of the word, which comes from the Latin ‘colere.’ This conflict of interpretation has recently surfaced in České Budějovice, as the city prepares for its European Capital of Culture (ECoC) term in 2028. The political leadership and the cultural public clearly subscribe to very different definitions. And it’s becoming clear that when culture is approached the wrong way, the ECoC title might end up doing more harm than good. The effects are most visible in architecture and in how public space is managed. In short, České Budějovice seems to be headed toward international embarrassment.

Hlavní cenu Krkonošské ceny za architekturu 2025 získal v pátek 6. června areál EPO1 v Trutnově. Ocenění udělila odborná porota za výjimečně citlivou konverzi bývalé elektrárny na centrum současného umění evropského formátu. Významný je přesah do celého regionu, kultivace veřejného prostranství, architektonický detail včetně grafiky a kurátorské pojetí objektu. Krkonošská cena za architekturu byla udělena již počtvrté a koná se s podporou Nadačního fondu Škoda Auto (NFŠA).

We tend to think that the cities we live in are mostly the result of systematic planning and design by architects and urbanists—and that this is basically how cities come to be. But that’s not the whole truth. In fact, there are many other forces that shape cities in significant ways: everyday life, people’s interactions, ordinary, day-to-day events. And sometimes, exceptional events leave extraordinary traces on the city’s material form.