Days of Architecture 2016 BRATISLAVA / WIEN

VALUE / ATTITUDE
New Housing in Bratislava and Its Vicinity

The dwelling is the oldest theme in all of architecture. Every society, every generation of architects is forced
to face the new challenges that it brings. The past century represented a major milestone in the history
of residential architecture: it was then that the modern concept of living emerged, the one that even today
forms the basis of designing a living space, an apartment complex or a private house. Yet current developments
in society, along with new environmental challenges and new technologies, have to a certain extent placed its
relevance into doubt. Modernist conceptions of the residence are confronted with changing ideas on the private,
the working, and the public space; with new demands for the functional use of a flat or a house; with changed
ideas on spatial comfort or material rendering. And new typologies are starting to emerge, bringing together
various types of housing, various types of functions or of spaces. We are witnesses to how the apartment block
is evolving from an isolated volume to a more complex structure of masses and differentiated exterior spaces,
yet equally how a single-family residence can, for example, assume the form of a fence. In short, the current
situation offers a unique opportunity for us, once again, to think about and discuss the values of residential
architecture, as well as the attitudes that individuals as well as society as a whole can express through it.

For the seventh year in succession, Bratislava’s Days of Architecture has been organised by the Department
of Architecture at the Institute for Construction and Architecture of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (ÚSTARCH SAV),
in cooperation with the Austrian Society for Architecture (OGFA). Forming the focal point of the event is a series
of expert-guided tours, through which the public can be introduced to the most noteworthy current realisations
in residential architecture and their associated civic infrastructure in Bratislava and nearby. Participants can be
introduced to a broad palette of contemporary residential architecture and facilities necessary for the functioning
of residential zones, as well as projects that adopt a new way to formulate social relationships and the qualities
of their public space. In these excursions around Bratislava and its surroundings, participants can meet with
the authors of these architectonic works, or their owners or even architectural critics, who can make it possible
to see behind the surface into how they emerged and how they function. No less, another theme in this year
is that of transport, with participants able to join not only with individual transport, but also via cycling or bus
tours to view contemporary architecture.

Both symbolically and literally, the Days of Architecture open the doors to the best in contemporary Slovak
architecture, to reveal its values and attitudes.