MEMORY OF PLACE Cultural rehabilitation of rural settlements through traditional crafts and utilization of local recources.
Matyáš Cigler diploma program 2017 Joakim Skajaa, APP Eva Kun, DAV
position of Kašperské Hory in Europe
Kašperské Hory 1885
INTENSION This diploma work should focus on cultural rehabilitation of rural settlements through traditional crafts and utilization of local resources. How these could improve the competitiveness of the village towards cities and decrease the rural->urban migration. This study/intervention should consider the economical, social and environmental sustainability.
position of Kašperské Hory - next to one of the largest forest areas in the Czech Republic
KaĹĄperskĂŠ Hory and municipality borders - 60% of the land is forest
gold mines - historical illustration, Jiří Agricola
1938 - Wehrmacht marching through the main square in Kašperské Hory
WHERE - HISTORY OF PLACE Kašperské Hory (1500 inhabitants, 758 alms) should work as a precedent for this study. It is a small town in the Šumava Range in the south Czech Republic close to German borders with a very rich history spreading from Celtic times (600 B.C..) until today. The first settlement in Kašperské Hory was a Celtic gold mine, and gold was the main income here until late 17th century. But this was not the case for the rest of the Šumava mountains, where logging and wood-related crafts and processes are the main industry until today. Large areas of untouched woodlands on a side of a mountain range where one can use the Vltava river to transport the wood easily to the capital Prague and further down on Labe to Berlin, Hamburg and the North Sea. In fact, wood is still the most exported raw material in the Czech Republic. During the Austrian-Hungarian Empire period, Czech lands underwent strong germanization, es-
pecially in the Šumava mountains, being just few kilometres from the German and Austrian borders. Only 10% of the inhabitants were ethnic Czechs before the second World War. In 1938 were all Czechoslovakian border areas (Sudetenland) taken by Hitler and most of the Czechs were deported. In 1946 the Beneš decrees were ratified and all ethnic Germans were moved from Czechoslovakia, leaving Kašperské Hory with only few original inhabitants. All the abandoned houses and factories left behind were nationalized by the communist party, which has been sending politically “uncomfortable” individuals, but also thieves and crooks, from the cities to re-occupy the empty sudetenland. These severe interventions have created big gaps in the natural continuation of local culture. A lot of the traditions and crafts were lost in the brown and red revolutions and now neoliberalism is finishing the job.
Hammerhäuser around 1905
forest sawmill near SchĂśneberg 1894 - a temporary building which has always been moved to the logging locacion
wood houling 1895 - the wood was houled by oxen to small water canals and floated down to the saw mills
forester Wolf on inspection of his loggers 1896
- total area: 44,19 km2 - agriculture: 13,22 km2 - forest: 27,74 km2 - meadows: 9 km2 - population: 1458 (falling) - unemployment: 13% - bad infrastracture connection to surrrounding cities, only 2nd class road, no railroad
WHERE - CURRENT SITUATION Today, Kašperské Hory is increasingly popular tourist destination and the demand for summer houses / cabins is also growing. Unfortunately, the population and employment is having the opposite tendency. Inhabitants are getting older (average age 43) and the unemployment is twice as high, compared to neighboring regions. Young people are moving out to bigger cities due to lack of education and are not coming back due to lack of job opportunities. Very common commerces are agriculture (mostly cattle), building and tourism, however logging
is still the most common industry in the region, but is also the most controversial one. 80% of the municipality forest is under NPŠ (National Park Šumava) and the common logging practice is very brutal - taking huge fields of forest at once and thus destroying significant part of the ecosystem. The whole forest industry is in a dramatic situation today, separated in two camps (one for more sustainable but less effective logging, one for the current unsastainable method). This dispute is becomming literally hiterical, since there is so much money in stake.
WHAT In this diploma, I would like to examine, whether it is possible to improve the economical, social and environmental sustainability of this small town through revitalizing the traditional wood industry and architecture. The municipality owns over 27 km2 of forest, but most of the harvested wood is exported to Germany today. Keeping the industry in the region could not only create new jobs (13% unemployment), but also resurrect traditional crafts and thus strenghten local identity. To achieve that, there needs to be increase of demand for wood and such services/products.
My plan is to revise the traditional vernacular wooden house and bring it back in a modern reexamined version, suitable for modern life and environmental demands. In this case, part of the house as a product should be also its production process. From planting the tree, growing it, cutting, transporting, processing the wood, construction of the house and eventually its disposal / recycling. Therefore, will be my focus in wide range of scales in terms of area but also of time.
When the prise of a house includes not only production of recources and the house, but also its disposal and eclological tax, a wooden house, using sustainable (at first glance) expensive techniques, would become much cheaper then a “cheap� concrete prefab house.
house 42, Volary - street facade
house 42, Volary - floor plan, section and elevations
There were two main types of a house in Šumava before 1950’: the“šumava house” and the “alpine house” - the latter was brought by Germans and had a very special plan proportions. Used to very cold winters in the Alps - the whole farmyard is located under a large wide roof. The village Volary was the most tipical example for such typology.
usage of wood diagram
HOW three research focuses: A: What is the current situation among local craftmans and manufacturers, what are their capabilities and practices. How is a house built today and where does the material come from? This would be also a big part of my study trip on site. B: The historical vernacular house, from the social point of view - its living qualities and disadvantages, and the technical point of view - details, insulation, roofing, flexibility. C: What are the living qualities and standards today, and how does it differ from past times. What are the insulation demands (U-values) etc.. Alongside and after the research part, I want to create a guide, how to build a wooden house with only
(or as much as possible) local resources (material and people). It is also the plan to design one prototype of such house to prove the concept. The final presentation: A: illustrations, maps - oucome of maping of local manufacturers, procedures and historical houses. timeline of sustainable forest management B: drawings - technical drawings and hand-drawn visualizations of the proposed prototype of the new wooden house C: models - 1:100 model of the prototype house, 1:1 models of hand made details, 1:500 landscape model of the site for the prototype, 1:10000 landscape model of KaĹĄperskĂŠ Hory municipality.
example of a brand new family house - finished 2016
WHY As mentioned above, KaťperskÊ Hory is increasingly attractive for tourists and there is a high demand for holiday cabins. There are several developers, who want to fill the sparsely built surroundings of the city center and build new housing. Since there is enough free space, the mayor is not against that, but first wants to analyze the city and create an urban plan for sustainable development. This task was assigned to Jakub Cigler Architcts (my father’s office).
Since they are working on the town plan, I took the opportunity to suggest a new way, the housing developments could be realized from architectural point of view. This aspect of possible real impact on the actual development of housing in the region is an important part of the diploma project, but should not and will not dictate nor inhibit the nature of my proposals.
Kašperké Hory 1837 - the small town had a clear compact urban concept with the church, city hall, and other important functions on the north side, and a commercial street (Dlouhá Ulice) with merchants, shops and workshops.
Kašperské Hory 2015 - today, the square is inhabited by the city hall, pubs, shops and hotels and keeps its central position, but the rest of the urban fabric is a dispersed mix of functions, abandoned buildings, communist-era social housing and traditional vernacular houses.
typical example of a contemporary custom-made wooden house
typical example of contemporary prefab wooden house
The usual way to build a family house in Ĺ umava today is either an attemp to fake the old vernacular with wrong techniques and materials - never achieving the intended resoult. Or to completely ignore the folklore and build a catalogue house from concrete blocks. For these, architects are never involved in the process.
Aeroplan 2016
There are few examples of modern architecture (designed by architects), where the folklore is considered - the material, details or/and proportions fit to the local. But too often are these just magazine buildings and the interior quality doesn’t correspond to the exterior. Also, the costs of production and maintanance are much higher, then prefab cataloque house. A1Architects 2012
rare examples of modern architecture related to the local vernacular
- work on social anthropology essay - making first contact with people on site, the mayor, environmentalists
JANUARY
week 1
week 2
- further program development - reasearch on vernacular architecture in Ĺ umava region
week 3
week 4
1st proposal presentation, social anthropology and program
FEBRUARY
site visit - gathering information about local crafts and manufactures, architecture, and history - Doing 1:1 interventions and observations. - establishing contact with locals
week 5
week 6
week 7
week 8
- 1:1 workshop - sustainability workshop
2nd proposal presentation, models, drawing, etc.
- processing of material gathered during the study trip - forming first presentation material: models, drawings, illustrations, strategies and findings from the study trip.
MARCH
week 9
- contine on research and proposals week 10
week 11
- building landscape model for the proposal
week 12
- second site visit
APRIL - turning researched material into something consumable - preparation of material for the 3rd presentation
3rd proposal presentation, models, drawing, etc.
week 13
week 14
week 15
- evaluating 3rd presentation, focus on changes on proposal
week 16
- making last important desicions and finishing technical drawings
week 17
- work on visual presentation
week 18
- work on models
week 19
- bringing together all material that has been collected and checking what is missing
week 20
MAY
JUNE
week 21
week 22
- exhibition installation
week 23
final exam
week 24
Proposed
time-
CURICUUM VITAE 1988 born in Prague, Czech Republic
2015 architectural design of the exhibition “Delta” in Czech Center, Berlin
2011 - 2015 living in Berlin, Germany since 2015 living in Bergen, Norway
2015 architectural design of the installation / performance by Martin Kohout and Lars Holdhus. Part of Insomnia festival in Tromsø
EDUCATION
SPOKEN LANGUAGES
2004 3 months course at New Zealand Language School in Queenstown, NZ
Czech – native language English – fluently German – fluently / DSH 3 certificate Swedish – basic / A2
2004 – 2008 SPŠG, Prague (High school of graphic desig) in Prague, department of photography 2008 – 2009 AAAD (Academy of Art, Architecture and Design) in Prague, department of Photography, under Hynek Alt and Alexandra Vajd 2009 – 2011 AAAD, Prague at architecture department, under Mathias Rick, Markus Bader and later Benjamin Foester-Baldenius, all based in studio raumlabor-berlin 2012 – 2015 TU-Berlin, Germany, faculty of architecture (Bachelor of Science degree) since 2015 BAS, Bergen Arkitekthøgskole, Norway WORK EXPERIENCE 2005 – 2008 as a photographer assistant for Jan Šilar and David Kraus 2011 architecture of czech section of Prague Bienalle (with Kateřina Vídenová) 2011 – 2013 intermittently working for raumlabor-berlin on various projects: Mappa Mundi, Roskilde 2012, Die Große Weltausstellung, Axel Springer competition,...
BAS COURSES
OPEN UTOPIA 1st semester - 2015 teachers: Joakim Skajaa, Christian Victor Palmer, H책vard Austvoll, Eva Kun Damsg책rdbanen is a proposal to create a cable car connecting lower Laksev책g with the mountain above.This cable car is connecting sustainable wood industry with free time activity. It is using the chopped wood from the mountain as a contra-weight and pulls people up. DALE - REMOTE PLACES 2nd semester - 2016 teachers: Thomas Wiesner and Hedvig Skjerdingstad A proposal for art residency on a tiny island close to Dale, with a focus on sustainability, remoteness and insularity.
COMPLEX CONTEXT 3rd semester - 2016 teachers: Arild W책ge, Kalle Grude, Andre Fontes in team with James Barber and David Harris A new car-free housing development within walking distance from the center on the mountain range. Focus on social and environmental sustainability. Looking for a gentle solution to inhabit the mountains around Bergen.