Zbynek Baladrán & Jirí Skála

1.)

It always makes her sick,
when she thinks about the infinite (a), (a’)

1.1

The modular construction system is a dream which will not let him go. He first encountered it during the war. There was a magazine in the bathroom of the Slávia cafe with an article describing and comparing various modular experiments in Europe and America. It was only part of the article, which was in French anyway, but he will never forget the photograph of the half-completed building with a foreman showing the crane operator where to put the next piece.

1.3

THe encountered modular building a third time when he prepared a vision for future cities and their composition. In his graduate work he proposed a visionary modular system comprised of units which could be stacked on one another. The interior of the standardized modules could be customized to fit the needs of each individual. Each “box” was designed to be placed using a helicopter.

3.1

Apartment complexes. Unfinished. Of the thirty buildings roughly half are completed. Behind the last one is a field. The fifteenth building is complete. It has eleven floors. There are no sidewalks between the finished buildings, but there are boardwalks, some of them sunk into the mud. The buildings are separated by enormous piles of rubble and clay. Rabbits live in them. Some of the buildings are constructed on a landfill. In the middle is a puddle as big as a lake. Trash is washed up on the edges. A rusty old cup. Remnants of plastic items and some old reels of movie film. One reel tells the story of a completely enclosed cube. Its inner walls are white, perfectly smooth, and unblemished. No seams or cracks. Inside there are no insects, no mites. Not even dust. A person sits inside. Small shreds of skin slowly separate from his body, pulled by static electricity towards the walls.

6.1

The first defendant:
The buildings follow rational and objective guidelines, not esthetic or artistic. To seek esthetic and artistic function in buildings is not scientific. Yes, a human being, as a higher organism, does have other non-rational needs, but these are not to be confused with architecture, scientific….
Urbanism is objectively based on the rational needs of the person, not on impressions…
Building construction excludes art…
It is still true that:
Firstly: construction is not esthetic, esthetics is only a name for a manner of perception.
Secondly: a passively esthetic perception is freely attached to an object, to the bearer of esthetic function.
Thirdly: there is no harm in designing a building without esthetic intent.
Fourthly: the superstructure of passive esthetics is art as service and a high style.
Above all: passive esthetics with its superstructure of art may not inhibit the implementation of new ways of objectifying working methods in construction.