Top architects and planners to share insights with Prague public

What are today’s most pressing housing challenges? What are the current trends in residential development? And how to plan and build for well-being? These are among the questions that will be discussed in Prague this week by some of the world’s leading architects and urban planners, who will be attending the annual reSITE conference.

I spoke to Radka Ondračková of reSITE and I first asked her to explain the choice of this year’s main theme, Accommodate:

“This year at reSITE we will explore the theme of housing affordability, quality of life and cost of living which is becoming the most pressing challenge for cities all over the world.

“This theme was specifically inspired by our previous speakers. It was mentioned again and again by people from different cities. We have heard it from architects, mayors and city planners so we thought it was something we should explore in greater detail.”

You have more than 50 speakers this year. Can you mention at least some of them?

“We are really excited to host some of the biggest names in today’s architecture. We will welcome Fujimoto who is working a lot with French cities and he is building projects in Paris right now. We will present a new book written by Reinier de Graaf, one of the partners of the Rotterdam-based OMA studios.

“We will also host Michel Rojkind, one of the most influential Mexican architects. He will also lead a Fun Run with Rojkind, starting in Chotkovy Sady in Prague and ending at Manifesto, the new cultural pop-up powered by reSITE.

“And there will be also many women, because ReSite cares a lot about gender balance in architecture and urbanism. We will present for instance Jeanne Gang who is famous for beautifully designed residential buildings and has also collaborated with the MoMA on an exhibition about reconsidering the American dream about housing.

Sou Fujimoto, photo: David Vintiner

“Another guest to be mentioned is Dara Huang, the founder and leader Design House Liberty from London, who is becoming one of the most influential voices in design today.”

And finally, is reSITE open only to experts in the field of architecture or urbanism or is it also open to the general public?

“reSITE is of course open to anyone and we insist on the cross-disciplinary aspect of the event, which means that we do not address only architects or only urbanists city planners or investors.

“We address all of them and we bring them to one table to re-think together these challenges. We usually welcome around one thousand guests, including students, investors and leaders, which is what creates the unique atmosphere of this event.”