In March 2018, the Prague councillors approved the re-design of the riverbank according to the project of the architect Petr Janda. However, he has been working on that since 2009, when he began collaboration with the (A)VOID Gallery; back then the riverbank was managed by a company Parking Prague. Petr Janda and curator Ivo Slavík initiated a new platform on Rašín Riverbank – the gallery (A)VOID Floating on a boat torso. The idea of architectural revitalisation came from the bottom, the civic association Dvojka sobě approached Petr Janda in 2011. The community had claimed the riverside and began to organise cultural and community events. The project of architectural intervention has been introduced on several occasions, e.g. at the exhibition Urban Interventions, expert meetings, as part of the Prague banks concept at the Prague Institute of Planning and Development, but it took many years when the city announced a tender (not architectural competitions) on the proposal of public toilets. The architect Janda convinced the municipality of the necessity to search for a complex conceptual solution for the riverside and eventually became the architect of the revitalisation of Rašín, Dvořák and Hořejší Riverside. Later, in cooperation with sociologists and anthropologists, he was responsible for the formation of the Prague Riverside Curator office, who is supposed to coordinate the program and activities with all stakeholders (the municipality, the districts councillors, inhabitants, visitors, entrepreneurs etc.) and work together with the administrative coordinator and the architect. By the end of 2018, the cells will be renovated, for their use tenders will be announced, the riverside will be equipped with toilets and underground waste containers, urban furniture will be restored. However, it is not just a “beautification” of the space, the renovation of the underground services to meet the current demands for use. In the future, there will be a new shipping terminal, a public bath or floating toilets.

​

Approximately since 2011, when the potential of the riverside was “discovered”, it turned into one of the most visited places, mingling different activities and alternative culture. Gradually, however, its operation became unsustainably and also generated negative reactions, especially among residents of adjacent residential areas. Efforts to organise and architecturally redesign the spaces grew stronger; the Concept for Prague Riverbanks was formulated, and experts prepared a number of refurbishment studies. Even though the first initiation came from a civic association that supported mainly the local culture and community, the riverside also became a subject of interest of businesspeople, tourists and mainstream culture. With the attractiveness of the site, political and economic pressure on the use of the site has increased, there are a significant commodification and neglect of the local culture (including, for example, visual pollution). Experts describe this process as symbolic displacement – this phenomenon means that people who have renewed life in these places do not longer consider it to be their place. How does Peter Janda’s design deal with it? Can architecture interventions influence the way of using the space or help to keep it for the traditional users? What are the residents’ interests and whose demands should be met? 

 

 

Petr Janda studied architecture at the Faculty of Architecture at the Czech Technical University and a monumental work at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. Until 2007 he was a member of sporadical, later he founded his studio. It oscillates on the interface of architecture, art and public space. He likes active participation in creating assignments, a comprehensive approach and multidisciplinary cooperation. He attempts to define each project with an original idea and create “contemporarily”. He has been dealing with the Prague riverbanks since 2009; for example, he is the author of the design of a boat torso for the (A)VOID Floating gallery, where the meeting “Architects Together on one Boat” used to be traditionally held.

​

— “I don’t think that it has come up to an artificial revitalisation, and I think that the term ‘revitalisation’ is a bit misleading. Right now, for example, we are in the process of something that could be called ‘devitalization’, but this is misleading too.”

 

​

Barbora Bírová is a social anthropologist; she works at the Charles University. She researches homelessness and the transformation of the city with a focus on gender perspective. She is especially interested in various forms of violence. She works as councillors and consultant for ending the homelessness at the Platform for Social Housing. She leads the organisation Anthropictures, which works with the applied socio-anthropological research methods in the urban environment. One of her research output is a travelling participatory exhibition “Homeless Pictures”. Through photos and audio recordings, the exhibition conveys the everyday experience of homeless people.

​

— “If we talk about public space, from the anthropological point of view, space is always exclusive.”

 

 

___

camera: Tomáš Hlaváček
video editing: Tomáš Hlaváček
translation: Ondřej Kvapil, Karolína Plášková

subtitles: Tereza Kvapilová, Karolína Plášková