Most issues of ERA21 magazine include something we call “a window to the past”. We open this window to contextually and historically frame each topic. Without historical excursions, ERA21 would seem incomplete. In this new issue focusing on family homes, we let ourselves get a little more creative...

In the former military area of Boletice, close to the Lipno water reservoir, a nature trail was built around the Olšina pond in 2020. The pond dates back to the 15th century and boasts an area of 138 hectares with an elevation of 731 meters above sea level. It is one of the highest ponds in Bohemia. Tourists taking the new wooden boardwalk through the wetlands, woodlands and moorlands can feel the presence of water every step of the way. Educational panels and entertainment objects accompany the trail.

We conducted the following interview with professor Momoyo Kaijima during her visit at the Faculty of Architecture CTU in Prague. With assistants and students from ETH Zurich, and inspired by the old vedute of Prague, Kaijima came to observe and record life in the city center. At the end of the week-long workshop the students drew ten large axonometric views of important public spaces, depicting past events that were sometimes hundreds of years old. Calling her research method architectural ethnography, Momoyo Kaijima also gave a lecture at the FA CTU on the same subject.

The move to build a new community center was first initiated when it became apparent that the current premises of the local library, in the Vratislavice 101010 cultural center, were much too confined, and a bigger venue had to be sought. Conveniently located just next door, the disused clergy house seemed a good fit, but it couldn’t accommodate all the intended uses. The solution was to build a new extension. The design brief for the new IGI Vratislavice center was then formulated on the basis of the client’s wishes. The project seeks to establish a new public place that would complement the lively town center. A single tall, contemporary, elementarily-shaped volume of the new library extends from the west flank of the historical clergy house, which was preserved in its original form. Visually separate, the two structures are joined together below ground-level and connect also through a glass corridor on the first floor.