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.

Due to a major shift in the climatic conditions of our planet, the wood industry has been going through turbulent changes recently. The new headquarters of the Kloboucká lesní wood processing company was therefore designed as a flexible shell with ample spatial reserves, which would allow the building to accommodate unexpected expansion. The new building occupies a prominent spot in the factory complex. Its north side turned to face the village and all approaching visitors; it blocks the rest of the regular manufacturing halls from view. The modular structure of the building combines a heavy timber frame, concrete core and steel reinforcements. The modules are then filled with different types of facade according to interior layout. Most of the timber frame is made of glulam, a material produced only a hundred meters away, from spruce wood harvested in local forests.