The main purpose of the workshops newbuild is the servicing and maintenance of large farm machinery and equipment. It is located on a farm with a biogas plant in the village of Opatov near Svitavy. Shapes and features of traditional farm buildings, like gabled roofs and a distinctive ridge skylight, inspired the simple and partly translucent form. Even though referencing local traditions, the newbuild is not like anything built for similar purposes. Offices and facilities for farm staff are also housed inside.

Twelve years ago, an article about Polish architecture that I had written with Roman Rutkowski was first published in ERA21. I was an optimist then; an emerging and committed architect. Today, having built several projects, I am slowly abandoning the profession and I prefer writing sad books set in modernist times when architects used to really take the fate of the world in their hands. I regard the contemporary architectural scene around our small Polish pond with disgust and embarrassment. One reason for that is my dissatisfaction with the buildings being put up here, but another reason is the media, social media in particular, where architects are losing the last of their dignity.

“Well, Adél, how do we start?”
“I think that this issue is kind of unique.”
“In what way?”
“We have stripped architecture naked. And ourselves, too.”
“What’s it feel like to be naked for you?”
“It’s OK now, but it wasn't so great to begin with. What will people say? Is it too much? Or too little? Should I start dancing as well, so that people like it?”
“I think we haven’t danced enough…”

Warehouses along the highway have their own stories. Three case studies from three parts of the Czech Republic represent the embodiment of the global logistics system in the local context of our everyday landscape. The goal is not to mediate a complete, clear or fully objective picture, but rather to record and tell the stories of real experiences, from the point of view of the people living in the affected areas who must confront the new development. The first story, Nová Hospoda, is a history tour of the optimistic beginnings of logistics planning in the CR. The second story, Krásný Les, is an example of how massive warehouse constructions won’t stop, even for naturally or culturally valuable localities. The third chapter, Koridor D8, describes how civic resistance against warehouses gradually changed into constructive coordination and conceptual planning in a broader sense. The stories are followed by an interview with the Deputy Mayor of Odolena Voda, architect Tomáš Lohniský, discussing the question of storage and territorial planning.

Logistics centers somehow seem to occupy more land than other development sites. The main reason for this is that their architecture does little else besides occupy space. While individually problematic enough, they offer a valuable insight into how we transform “natural” agricultural land using different “artificial” surfaces. With logistics and agriculture both significantly contributing to ongoing climate change, however, the seemingly clear divide between the natural and the artificial world disappears.