Future Architectures PRACTICE, OFFICE, WORK at the Venice Biennale of Architecture

The creators of The Office for a Non-Precarious Future are architect, facilitator, and researcher Eliška Havla Pomyjová, architect David Neuhäusl, and motion designer and teacher Jan Netušil. The exhibition presents not only the current situation but also seeks solutions to the current situation. The presentation includes a residency programme that offers the opportunity to participate in the search for solutions for the future. One of its guests is the Studio of Architecture II: Future Architectures Platform at UMPRUM under the direction of Eva Franch i Gilabert and coordinators Alžběta P. Brůhová, and Kateřina Vídenová.

The Studio of Architecture II at UMPRUM functions as a centre of creative thinking and innovation. It focuses on the skills of creating environments, processes, and buildings that promote positive social change and prioritize sustainability and social justice. This resonates in the project for the Czech residency, which the studio will present at the Venice Biennale in its final week. During the summer semester of 2023, students analysed architectural offices in relation to other contemporary forms of creative collaboration. Their task was to redefine the spaces, systems, and methods of working in architectural practice and to translate their findings into new ways of working and making architecture.

"Let us start from the assumption that architectural practice is a form of collective production embedded in a physical, social, and technological configuration. Our studio has researched, analysed, and designed collective forms of creative production and offered alternative modes of instrumentalisation and disruption, thereby challenging current models of design practice in a rapidly evolving and ever-changing design culture", says the head Eva Franch i Gilabert about the latest project of Architecture Studio II.

A total of six different projects will be presented at the Venice Biennale. Architecture Unstable offers guided meditations to alleviate the anxiety caused by the constant urge to feel productive. T.R.A.S.H. (Trash Rhythms in Architecture, Society, and Habitat) deals with the theme of material management and waste. The relationship to home and the possibilities of connecting visitors to the Biennale are addressed by the creators of FI:RE (Forgotten and Remote Exploration). How can working late into the evening affect our work, sleep quality, and dreams? Architecture Dreaming ponders whether architects' dreams can be an inspiration or rather a nightmare. Hood Collared - Most of Us Hide Together explores the issue of blurring the work-life balance, and Teambuilding concludes it with a new form of architectural celebration with a critical twist.

Residency of the Studio of Architecture II: Future Architectures Platform concludes the programme of the Czech exposition at the Venice Architecture Biennale. In addition to the exhibition of student projects, an afternoon has been prepared that is dedicated to research methods and their outputs in the context of studio teaching

Exhibited projects and creators:
Architecture Unstable: Mariana Chavíková, Dan Růžička, Réka Szatmári.
T.R.A.S.H.: Sissel Esbensen, Michal Klimeš, Barbora Svobodová, and Anna Šťastná.
FI:RE: Mikuláš Beck, Krištof Krebs, Matyáš Kytka, and Mia Maripuu.
Architecture dreaming: Tereza Staňková.
Hood collared - most of us hide together: Viktor Eichler.
Teambuilding: Marek Frajt, Sofie Gjuričová, Adam Kučera, and Patrik Platil.
Educational guidance: Eva Franch i Gilabert ( head of the studio); Alžběta P. Brůhová, and Kateřina Vídenová (studio coordinators).

The project "The Office for a Non-Precarious Future" highlights the current pressing issues of the architectural profession that young architects are forced to address. The starting question is: how can architects design a better world if they themselves work in a toxic working system? The exhibition not only presents the current situation, but also seeks new solutions.
More information about the project:
https://www.ngprague.cz/udalost/3678/18-bienale-architektury-v-benatkach
https://www.czechpavilionbiennale23.com

Commissioner of The Office for a Non-Precarious Future:Helena Huber-Doudová
Authors of the exhibition The Office for a Non-Precarious Future: Eliška Havla Pomyjová, David Neuhäusl, Jan Netušil

The project is supported by the Ministry of Culture Czech Republic, Národní plány obnovy and the European Union.