In summer 2021, South Moravia, between Břeclav and Hodonín, was hit by a tornado. This natural disaster claimed six lives, hundreds of injuries and billions of Crowns worth of damages to private and public property. Considerable financial and human resources were expended on immediate response and recovery in the area—humanitarian aid was followed by urgent repairs to infrastructure and buildings. But how does the area look now, two years after the event? We joined municipal architect Ondřej Stolařík on a visit to the most impacted parts of the town of Hodonín.

Hidden behind a transparent barrier of temporary fencing, the 2022 redevelopment of one of the most prominent public spaces in Brno was attracting curious glances from passing locals during its construction. The park opened in stages during spring 2023 (to allow new plantings to take root) and it has just seen the end of its very first summer season. The new cafe with its elliptical roof support became a natural focal point, placed precisely on the visual axis from the main city square. Next to the cafe and the children’s playground is the central multi-purpose space with a pond-like water feature, bordered by a long wooden bench. Rainwater management and landscape solution, designed by Klára Zahradníčková, also played a significant role in the project.

In mid-june, the editorial office was contacted by architect Karel Kroupa. Born in 1918 in Broumov, he decided to celebrate his jubilee by recording his life’s story marked by the dramatic events of the 20^th century. In the interview with Rostislav Koryčánek, he reveals his touching patriotism, describes his uneasy path to and love for architecture, as well as his professional career full of unexpected twists and unforgettable encounters.

Few local architects can work with site context and a design brief as originally as Svatopluk Sládeček. For the informed public, his “figures”—houses of unusual shapes and characteristics—are very well known even with their idiosyncratic nicknames. Our conversation with Sládeček covered his playfully figurative architecture as well as his inspiration in modernism, his view of architecture as a fundamental part of culture, and his search for the origin of joy, which some buildings inadvertently tend to emanate. When the interview was finished, we immediately set off to Kroměříž, to satisfy ourselves to the degree of which these ideas factored into the design of Sládeček’s early project of the Villa on the Barbořina hill.