Rozhovory Architektura osmdesátých let

The architecture of the 1980s cannot be viewed only through the lens of the (official) contemporary press or surviving archival documents. The everyday reality of building practice often took much more convoluted paths that had to overcome the tortuous pitfalls of late-normalisation life and the invisible but absolutely essential topography of interpersonal relations. The personal fates and memories of the actors of the contemporary architectural scene therefore represent a very valuable source of knowledge. In particular, the interviews in this book focus on charting the challenges that architects of the 1980s faced; and the subtle contortions and activities by which they coped with unpredictable driving forces in an unfree, economically and socially stagnant country. The memoirs give us a glimpse into a world that is no longer only difficult to understand, but also surprisingly distant in its tangled rusticity. Yet (and sometimes precisely because of this) it was the setting for some excellent architecture.