Serious discussions and wild speculations can both be heard regularly on the difference between Czech and Slovak architecture. However, thirty years since the dissolution of the federal republic probably is not enough time to truly register the changes in development, assuming that there actually is something like Czech and Slovak architecture in the first place. Simply put, there are some things happening in our neighbours’ architectural community that we could very well envy, like the new National Gallery building, or the Slovak Prize for Architecture gala being broadcast on primetime TV. On the other hand, there are other things our Slovak colleagues could learn from us.

John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton, laureates of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics, were recognized for their pioneering work in machine learning using artificial neural networks. The surprising decision (it’s uncommon for the Nobel Prize in Physics to be awarded for achievements in the field of information technology) clearly illustrates our relationship to the development of AI in general: we don’t know how to classify it, we don’t know what to think about it, but we can’t ignore it.

Only a few Czech architecture studios have the same level of experience designing schools and kindergartens as XTOPIX. Repeatedly succeeding in architecture competitions, Barbora and Pavel Buryška now have under their belt several completed projects in different corners of the country. What’s the secret of their success? What are the things to keep in mind when designing schools? How to deal with the Czech Republic’s “over-regulated” building laws? In an interview for this issue of ERA21, we discussed all that and more.

That the art of teaching be placed on a proper foundation is to the advantage—

1. Of parents, who up to this time have for the most part been uncertain how much to expect from their chlidren. They hires tutors, besought them, strove to win them over by gifts, changed them, just as often in vain as with any result. But now that the method of teaching has been reasoned out with unerring accuracy, it will, with the assistance of God, be impossible that the desired result should not follow.

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