Architecture Day 2024: Trial of Transformation

This year's 14th edition of the Architecture Day festival will take place under the subtitle „Trial of Transformation“. It refers, among other things, to the 100th anniversary of Franz Kafka's death, which will be one of the main program lines, not only commemorating structures associated with the author or buildings related to literature but also inviting visitors to places with a Kafkaesque atmosphere. Additional program sections will be dedicated, for example, to the work of architects Josef Fanta, Karel Hubáček, and their collaborators.

The largest architectural festival in the Czech Republic offered over 500 events in more than a hundred cities across the country and in Slovakia last year, attracting 35,000 visitors. This year, enthusiasts can look forward to various architectural walks, excursions with architects and experts, and other events from the end of September to early October, specifically from Friday, September 27, to Thursday, October 3, 2024. The events are organized in collaboration with local associations and architects. Simultaneously with the Architecture Day, its sister festival of Film and Architecture will also take place. More information will be continuously published on www.denarchitektury.cz.

For 14 years, the Kruh Festival of Architecture has been organized by the association Kruh (Circle), annually commemorating significant personalities in the field of architecture and crucial structures. This year, it will, for the first time, connect the fields of architecture and literature due to a significant jubilee, the 100th anniversary of Franz Kafka's death. The personality and work of the writer, considered one of the most influential literary figures of the 20th century, inspire the festival's dramaturgy and program composition. The subtitle of this year's festival, „Trial of Transformation,“ is derived from the titles of Kafka's books ,taking on various meanings in the context of architecture, urban development, and public space. The program will explore Kafkaesque moods, discovering places and architecture that are peculiar, unusual, absurd, confined, dreamlike, bureaucratic, or grotesque. The festival will showcase structures often forgotten or overlooked, as well as houses related to literature (such as publishing houses or printing presses) and technical service buildings, such as transformer stations, telephone exchanges, tunnel exhausts, water towers, fans, and collectors, along with lesser-known artworks in public spaces, says Marcela Steinbachová, the festival's director and founder of the association Kruh (Circle). The festival will also focus on German and Jewish architects and Kafka's contemporaries who influenced the current appearance of Czech cities, just as Kafka influenced Czech literature and culture. Among them are Josef Zasche, Ernst Wiesner, and Rudolf Wels, who worked in Prague, Brno, and especially in the areas of the former Sudetenland.

The Architecture Day program in 2024 will also commemorate other anniversaries: 350 years since the birth of the significant late baroque builder and architect František Maxmilián Kaňka (1674–1766), 70 years since the death of Josef Fanta (1856–1954), the architect of the Prague Main Railway Station building and the current Ministry of Industry and Trade. The festival program will also reflect on the 100th anniversary of the birth of Karel Hubáček (1924–2011), one of the most acclaimed Czechoslovak architects, co-founder of the Association of Engineers and Architects in Liberec (SIAL), and the author of the design for the television transmitter and hotel on Ještěd. Attention will also be paid to his collaborators Miroslav Masák, John Eisler, Martin Rajniš, Emil Přikryl, and others, along with their realizations.

Below you can watch the aftermovie from the Architecture Day 2023 festival.