English summary

CPTED – essential methodological concepts: Crime prevention – environmental crime
By Julián Keppl, Robert Špaček

Criminality is a phenomenon as old as human civilisation itself and is a worldwide occurrence.  The fight with criminality oscillates between restriction and prevention. The global nature of criminality naturally means international cooperation, in the field of prevention as well. A particular example is the CPTED project – Crime prevention through environmental design. Among other things, the CPTED concept supports international cooperation between police, local authorities, developers, planners and architects. The concept of designing out crime is recognised across Europe as a new and innovative method for creating safer environments by engaging all stakeholders in the consultation process at the state of affairs in ancient cities, where the urban designer and the lawmaker shared equal status (Arendt, 2007). In our contribution we intend to outline the connections between town architecture and town planning and security how we perceive them in the process of education at the Faculty of Architecture, STU. This concept is not explicitly anchored in the system of teaching; we rather address it in the frame of activities connected with the quality of the environment, mainly at the Institute of Sustainable and Experimental Architecture. The sustainability of life consists of natural, social, economic and cultural elements. The feeling of security is undoubtedly related to the quality of life.

 

Research and presentation of architectural heritage
By Magdaléna Kvasnicová

Historic architecture is an inevitable component of cultural heritage. Historic structures as a resource and medium of collective memory and identity of a certain cultural community are potential historic monuments and therefore a subject of public interest requiring preservation and protection, i.e. sustainable development. Even though historic monuments and their values will always be affected by political, ideological and other manipulations, it is necessary not to give up the possibility of objectification offered by research in this field. Research of historic architecture (concerning architectural, artistic, and archaeological and/or restoration aspects) facilitates legitimating public interest in the preservation of architectural works and it is a necessity sine qua non in maintaining historic structures. Due to the fact that setting the value of historic structures has a rather ambivalent character as a result of the presence of diverse interests, the scientific perspective of the humanities (e.g. art history, archaeology, history) remains the only real and independent instrument for their objectification. Research of historic architecture provides an information potential, thus increasing the value of historic buildings and significantly influencing approaches to their restoration.

According to H. Eckerdt, J. Kleinmanns and H. Reimers there are two types of concept for treating historic architecture: those concepts accepting historic development until the present state and considering signs of this ageing process as a value (preservation, maintenance, conservation), and concepts aiming for modification of the historic development of the given construction, which try to various extents to reverse this process (renewal, reconstruction, renovation).

Renovation or adaptation of historic architecture offers architects the widest possibilities for creative work, e.g. when for certain reasons the original historic architecture needs to be extended by a new mass or detail. Eckerdt – Kleinmanns – Reimers differentiate two approaches relating to the preserved substance: addition (independent construction parts fulfill new requirements) and subtraction (creation of suitable base or substrate for a new form or shape by removing historic layers). In both cases we leave the platform of preservation in favour of free architectural design, resulting in everlasting arguments between architects and representatives advocating the preservation of historic structures. The research results are in this case relevant and obligatory for the architect in the preserved parts which are to be conserved, renovated or reconstructed. In the case of new substances, the research results facilitate understanding the historic and cultural context of the origin, formation, significance and functions of the given historic building or its environment, and also bear the corrective function. Research results can provide architects with a wealth of experience and inspiration for their own design work.

The presented examples of renovation of historic architecture show the ambivalence in utilization of research results. At the same time, they draw attention to the importance of a correct interpretation of gained knowledge for methodologists – the preservationists and creative architects who bear the main responsibility for maintaining historic architecture.

 

Metapolis: Paradigm of a city in the age of post-urbanism
By Zoltán Holocsy

The city is regarded as the most complex physical expression of the political, economic, cultural and ecological aspirations of each civilization. The concept of the classical city must be replaced by the new idea of the metapolis. This idea refers in a radical way to the depth of changes which expose the contemporary city in an age when the shape of post-industrial society is gaining real lines. The idea of the post-urban city is concerned as a manifestation of the new liquid economy, which is based on the mobility of the information technologies on a global scale. This phenomenon is at the same time coupled with the global tendency towards the dramatic acceleration of urban development. The speed and intensity of this process has placed architects and especially town-planners into a new position where traditional urban planning techniques are considered as obsolete. Modernity has brought its own concept of the city as METROPOLIS – the urbanity which is based on the mechanistic (re)production of objects, extensive, expansionary, hierarchical and centralised growth, the city of carried out mechanistic Utopia.

METAPOLIS has become an expression for the post-industrial city. At the metapolis, we are not able to speak about a linear growth, but about the combinations and interactions of one’s territory to others, about stratifications and merging of several planes and layers. The Metapolis dissolves the traditional hierarchical and centralising structures into a more or less homogeneous network- or rhisomatic structures (the sort of self-generated structures which exist in nature, to the structures which are dynamic, unfinished, sustaining or interrupting the flows and areas which cumulate or, are (seemingly) empty). The territory of the metapolis became a complex system of simultaneous relations and events which are conditional and influenced on the basis of possible conjunctions between several layers of activities.

The contemporary urban topographies tend to root into their surrounding environment and are modelled particularly by transport and communication corridors as vectors of mobility. The liquid economy dissolves the traditional urban organism and changes it into a territory of superimposed centrality. The city starts to be described in terms of chaos theory, as a network of attractors, gravitation fields, vectors of growth and superconductive topographies, which are capable of permanent self- reorientation. The polycentric structure of cities makes it possible to face up with sudden states of instability caused by permanent fluctuation of the capital. Another important shift from the paradigm of Metropolis to Metapolis is the increase of importance from the physical to non-physical, non-material and virtual aspects of cities. Their visualisation can uncover new city maps, which can be radically different from maps rendering the physical substance of towns. The goal of this work is an attempt at some kind of cataloguing, description and comparison of the phenomena, terms and concepts which are defining and reflecting the inherence and advancement of contemporary cities.

 

Reevaluation of stereotypes: Design of microenvironment from its user’s point of view
By Veronika Kotradyová

The paper deals with re-evaluating the environmental design stereotypes formed through inhabiting natural and built environments. It deals with the conflict between culture and rational thinking on the one hand and instinct and self-regulation of the human body and nature on the other. It explores the conflict presented in western civilization by different forms in decision-making in our lives, including environmental design. The thesis consisted of literature studies, consultations with experts from the human sciences and my own field research (test of comforts and behavioral field research). The core of the thesis is an individual complex diagnostics of the user, including health problems, social and working anamnesis and sensorial, emotional and rational preferences, and thus it contributes to the individualization of a personal space creation for users. It also analyzes the methods of behavioral research as an important part of human-centered design/body conscious design. This work is a part of the research project and serves as an initial study material for the course of Humanization of the Microenvironment – Body Conscious Design.

 

From classic urban spaces to the experiment
By Jana Sajdáková

We may go beyond. Although we see the space as the most important attribute of architecture, the space is not just what simply remains between the walls. Loos talks about “Das Prinzip der Bekleidung”, Le Corbusier about The Free Plan, Mies’s Void under “Umbrella”, and this is where Eisenman also belongs. As a writer, philosopher, architect he constantly tries to push architecture forward… he is in the process. On the other hand, there is film, as a medium which operates with space, time, movement and images. These are the commodities that architecture and film operate with. The ‘film’ space is evolved by montage – the basic strategy of film. Eisenman’s architecture progresses by The Fold.  Both the architecture and the film are parallel, but a possible way how to start a dialogue among them is simply through common language – the system of how we communicate, and share our ideas.

 

Urban public space: Resources of progress in discursive notions
By Kristína Staněková

It has been observed that planning policies and design guidance in developed western countries significantly differ from the ones used in our country. This paper briefly explores the changes of urban form and public space in the course of 19th and 20th century following the evolvement of the theoretical approaches and practices of urban design, their impact on urban form and the public realm and subsequent theoretical and empirical research. This approach is used as a means of tracing the sources of current discursive notions from which stem the changes in legislative approach in these countries. The aim is to point out that these discursive notions could serve as a source of potential new guidelines in our country, because it appears that most of the development characteristics outlined correlate with those in our country, although there were time laps in the implementation and occurrence of some approaches as compared to western countries. Negative outcomes observed are similar as well. That leads us to believe that the urban design discourse as discussed in western countries needs to be further studied, because it might be a valuable resource of information for determining our future course of delivering sustainable cities and viable and cherished environments.

 

Considering the architectural field
By Peter Hudač

The field represents a fairly frequent expression in architectural language. Its frequent use and usage is widespread and offers many interesting interpretations and connotations. In their works, many theoreticians relate to the phenomenon, either directly or indirectly. The issue is very topical, especially in relation to architectural thinking where the theory of fields influences the architectural design tools. The study attempts to draw a wide range image of the architectural field, which is defined by its symbols and qualities which are based on individual examples. To involve the field into the process of thinking, it is necessary not only to define it but also to recognise its possibilities and also its range of application. Thus a side effect of such thinking is a multi-layered and plastic notion of meanings, links, relations and contexts of the field in architecture.