Just the Way It Is Contemporary Architecture in Slovakia

Hans Ibelings Just the Way It Is Contemporary Architecture in Slovakia Scientists have tested the visual-motor coordination of athletes by enclosing them in a dark room and then throw- ing them a ball, while lighting the space for no more than a single second. It was found that even this instant of vis- ibility sufficed for a well-trained athlete to determine the speed and direction of the ball and catch it in the dark. The architectural critic from abroad is, essentially, in a situation very similar to that of the tested athletes, being asked to There exists a highly apt tautology that claims architecture to judge, from a sample of architecture in a certain situation and be what it is seen by people who understand it. This is essentially time, its dynamics and trajectories of development. This brief a variation of the definition of art offered by Howard Becker, who essay is, in fact, an attempt of this kind to determine where con- describes the art world as “all those people whose activities are nec- temporary architecture in Slovakia now stands. I do not intend essary for the creation of characteristic works, which this world and to assert that there is a similar form of talent inherent to archi- perhaps even others define as art”.1 Architecture is what the world tectural criticism, but to be able to write down what one seed of architects (and perhaps even others) define as architecture. does in fact require some degree of visual-motor coordination. The editors of this publication, as is evident, are active in the If the present moment is understood simply as the “now” architectural world, and thus their selection reflects and contrib- and Slovakia as the “here” (to avoid all extensive digressions utes to what is understood as architecture. Even if some of their on whether Slovak architecture as a national form can or even choices, or some of the choices they did not make, could be sub- should exist), there still remains but one question: What archi- ject to question, the viewer can be certain that this yearbook in tecture do we talk about when we talk about architecture? total encapsulates architecture as we generally understand it. Of course, architecture has a wide variety of forms: it can This selection can be viewed as the starting point reflecting the be a design, theory, project, idea, sketch, concept, book, draw- approach of many architects listed in this publication, who in their ing, sculpture, memory and even more, though this publication work start from the conditions and circumstances “as they are”. concentrates on architecture as a building. It need not be said Possibly it will seem a generalisation, but architecture in Slovakia that architecture is not the domain of every building, just as not is perceived as an ordinary environment, with an unusual, some- everything painted on canvas is a picture or even an artwork. times even self-denying informality. We should not understand Similarly, what is built is not always a building, nor is every build- this – erroneously – as a lack of ambition or talent, but instead as ing always perceived as architecture. This has nothing in common proof that contemporary Slovak architects do not focus on the with the alleged categorical difference between, say, a cathedral exceptional, whether in material, form or typology. Put generally, and a bicycle shed – to cite the renowned introduction by Nikolaus in place of a desire for originality, their architecture frequently Pevsner to his Outline of European Architecture – but as changing reveals a surprising directness, and perhaps, if the possibility were criteria of what, in the world of architecture, is willing and capable there, a privileging of Pevsner’s bicycle shed over the cathedral. of being included under the concept of architecture. This year- They suffice without ostentatious display of innovative tech- book, for instance, contains several single-family houses selected nologies, surprising materials, expansive forms or ostentatious from a long list of freestanding and duplex residences. But even uniqueness. If the projects in this book are in any way exceptional, this longlist provides only a tiny fraction of all of the residential it is in the intelligence of the design and the joyful thoroughness, projects built in recent years in Slovakia. While any private house not the arbitrary difference from everything that surrounds them. can be understood as an expression both of Slovak and contempo- Many projects reveal what the Dutch architect Gerrit Rietveld rary culture – in the anthropological sense of the culture of hous- has termed the “luxury of sobriety”. These include, e.g. the cot- ing – only a few of them have been chosen as suitable for inclusion tage in Vojka by Peter Jurkovič or the hunting lodge in Kuchyn among contemporary Slovak architecture in a publication like this. from Atelier Pantograph, which provide unassuming comfort, or the urban plan for the square in Prešov by Zerozero, which provides cultivated dignity to the everyday environment. These are examples of architecture that appear deceptively simple and self-evident, yet nonetheless show how surprisingly little it takes to achieve a surprising effect. On the other hand, they implicitly reveal the wretchedness of the great mass of thoughtlessly designed page 29 material environments – a fact not only limited to Slovakia. Najlepšie rezidenčné projekty na Slovensku nenápadne ukrý- vajú svojich obyvateľov, najzreteľnejšie v Dome v dome od Martina Jančoka v Bernolákove alebo v rezidenčnom komplexe navrhnu- tom ateliérom what architects, ktorý potláča individualitu bytov. Najlepšie monumenty relativizujú monumentalitu, ako v prí- pade lávky a vyhliadkovej plošiny na vrchole kopca Straník, ktorá nie je ničím iným než bežným orientačným bodom v krajine. Tie najlepšie premeny existujúcich budov rešpektujú to, čo tam už bolo. Doslova to prijímajú tak, „ako to je“, čo potvr- dzujú aj obnova funkcionalistického kúpaliska v Košiciach od Ladislava Hanuliaka, elegantná premena Mozartovho domu v Bratislave ateliérom Skoček + Skoček alebo prag- matická krása konverzie bývalej továrne od GutGut. Vzhľadom na súčasný dôraz na priamočiaru skromnosť je architektúra Slovenska v mnohom v súlade s vývojom inde v Európe, či už ide o zdržanlivý modernizmus, ako práce ate- liérov Sergison Bates alebo Caruso St John vo Veľkej Británii, sofistikované brikoláže z bežných prvkov v dielach architek- tov De Vylder Taillieu Vinck a niekoľkých ďalších z Flámska, racionalistickú nostalgiu školy San Rocco v Taliansku, alebo remeslo práve vznikajúcej „generácie tkáčov“ v Holandsku. Na Slovensku však chýba koordinované skupinové úsilie situo- vať svoju architektúru v rámci medzinárodného kontextu, kam by patrila, aj keď nemá porovnateľnú osobnosť, chytľavé motto či emblematický projekt. Alebo by sme skôr mali povedať: ešte ich nemá. Očividná absencia vlastnej propagácie v určitom zmysle pristane skromnosti slovenskej architektúry. Mnohí európ- ski kolegovia hlásiaci sa k podobnej prostote sa však nestránia vyvolávania záujmu o svoju prácu a idey. Slovenskí architekti svoje diela možno podceňujú, keď nezdôrazňujú silu myšlie- nok a návrhov podobne ako ich súčasníci kdekoľvek vo svete. Hoci je každý z projektov v tomto výbere jedinečný (pozo- ruhodnou výnimkou je len prefabrikovaný Arkshelter od De Backera, Mikovčáka a Senkowského), možno ich vnímať aj v inom svetle – ako exemplárne svojím prístupom, napríklad ako premeny existujúcich budov, citlivé intervencie v prírod- nom prostredí či starostlivé vstupy do mestskej štruktúry, alebo ako prototypy s latentným potenciálom stať sa typmi ako mnohé rodinné domy. Aj keď sa to nikdy nestane, aspoň teoreticky by mohli byť východiskovým bodom metódy, res- pektíve modelu, čo možno opakovať, napodobňovať a sta- vať na ňom tak, že by sme si mohli hypoteticky predstaviť inverzný svet, v ktorom takmer dve desiatky nových projektov v ročenke už nebudú tými výnimkami, ale stanú sa pravidlom. strana 30 BECKER, H.,1982. Art Worlds. Berkeley: University of California Press, s. 34. The best residential projects in Slovakia unassumingly hide their residents, most visibly in the “Dom v dome” by Martin Jančok in Bernolákovo, or in the residential complex by the atelier What!, which reduces the individuality of the flats. The best monuments relativise their monumentality, as in the case of the footbridge and viewing deck at the peak of the hill Straník, which is nothing but an ordinary mark in the landscape. The best transformations of extant buildings respect what was there before. Literally, they take it “as it is”, confirmed by the restoration of the Functionalist swimming baths in Košice by Ladislav Hanuliak, the elegant transformation of the Mozart House in Bratislava by the atelier Skoček + Skoček, or the pragmatic beauty of the conversion of a former factory by the studio GutGut. Considering the emphasis now placed on directness and simplic- ity, the architecture of Slovakia is in many ways fully in harmony with developments elsewhere in Europe, whether the apparent Modernism of the work of Sergison Bates or Caruso St John in Brit- ain, the sophisticated bricolage of common elements in the work of De Vylder Taillieu Vinck and others in Flanders, the rationalist nostalgia of the San Rocco school in Italy, or the craftsmanship of the emerging “weavers’ generation” in the Netherlands. What Slova- kia lacks, though, is a coordinated group effort to situate its architecture within the framework of this international context, where it belongs, even if it has no specific personality, striking motto, or emblematic project. Or perhaps we could say instead: it does not have them yet. Indeed, the absence of propagation is in a definite sense an admission to the modesty of Slovak architecture. Many of its European colleagues who declare allegiance to a similar simplic- ity are, though, not ashamed of calling attention to their work and ideas. Slovak architects may well give their work less value than it deserves if they fail to accentuate the strength of their ideas and designs as is the case of their contemporaries almost anywhere else.

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