Jan Karasek: Portfolio of Selected Works

Contact honza.kar@gmail.com +420 602 321 348 Jan Karásek .ĜLåtNRYD Praha 8

1985 born in Prague

ĚƵĐĂƟŽŶ 4

2001 - 2005 Václav Hollar High School of Fine Arts Modern Graphic Techniques 2005 - 2008 Czech Technical University Faculty of Architecture, Bachelor studies 2008 - 2011 Czech Technical University Faculty of Architecture, Master Studies 2009 - 2010 Delft University of Technology Faculty of Architecture 2010 - 2011 Tongji University, Shanghai College of Architecture and Urban Planning

Work Experience 2007 2008 2009

VLLNA Studio - Renderings Awit Atelier collaboration with 2H Architekti

Workshops 2007 2008 2009 2010

Dutch Ladies Workshop with Natalie deVries and Anna Vos City Development with Jan JehlĂ­k and TomĂĄĹĄ Ctibor Multimedia Workshop at TU Delft: Film Mostov, revitalization of chateau hotel resort

Achievements +RXVH RQ D 1DUURZ 3ORW Generace Nula: Praha 0XOWLSXUSRVH 7KHDWUH

([KLELWHG DW Âł=ERÄœPH SORW\´ 6ORYDNLD 3rd Place, O NejlepĹĄĂ­ UrbanistickĂ˝ projekt (The Best Urban Design), 2010 2ORYÄŒQĂŞ 'XĂŁDQ $ZDUG IRU WKH %HVW 6WXGLR

WĆľÄ?ĹŻĹ?Ä?Ä‚Ć&#x;ŽŜ Trans(ition)formers Generace Nula: Praha

5 project published in Urban China 44, February 2011 and Architekt 01/2011 project published in the CTU Faculty of Architecture yarbook 2009

'ĆŒĹ˝ĆľĆ‰Ć? ĂŜĚ Ć?Ć?Ĺ˝Ä?Ĺ?Ä‚Ć&#x;ŽŜĆ?

Architecture Students’ Association .networkshop Generace Nula

active member since 2008 founding member founding member

Skills Autodesk AutoCAD, 3DS Max, Rhinoceros Adobe Suite: Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat, Premiere Pro Fluent in English, beginner in Mandarin Chinese

The Netherlands 2009 - 2010 Delft University of Technology 2009 - 2010 TUD Faculty of Architecture

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2005 - 2011 CTU Faculty of Architecture

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Prague, Czech republic 1985* 2001 - 2005 Vรกclav Hollar High School of Fine Arts 2005 - 2011 Czech Technical University

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Projects 2006 2007 2007 2008 2008 2009 2009

Diplomat’s Villa, studio of Z. Rothbauer Holešovice Tower, 1+xx Studio of Roman Koucký Temple of Light, competition project Congress Tower, 1+xx Studio of Roman Koucký Multipurpose Theatre, Hájek-Šépka studio Generace nula: Praha - An Urban Study of Prague, 1+xx Studio of Roman Koucký Haarlem Connected, Studio of M. Y. Berghauser Pont

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2010 2010 2010 2011 2011 2011 2011

Kanaalhaven Front, Studio of Paul Stouten Changsha, Living on Edge Slavic Epic, Competition Project Trans(ition)formers project, Shanghai Studio of Prof. Wang Bouwei The New City Airport, 1+xx Studio of Roman Koucký Three Porotherm House studies Daycare Centre for Elderly

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Shanghai, China 2010 - 2011 Tongji University, College of Architecture and Urban Planning

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Full project info at: http://world-of-jk.blogspot.com/2012/01/project-three-porotherm-homes.html

2011

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POROTHER

RM HOUSE ǁŝƚŚ KŶĚƎĞũ ƵƓĞŬ

Instead of standard rectangular suburban plot we choose to locate the house on more traditional prolonged plot which greatly restricts width of the house: Traditional village structure asks for traditional approach - small distance between houses and high density. Outside dimensions are thus only 5x17,7m. The space besides the house is filled with negative “print” of the house itself composed of necessary workshop/tools shed and a large sitting space. The shed is thus also recognized as a wall of the garden - public space is created on one side and intimate seating with beatiful view of the vast prolonged garden on the other side.

Simple and minimal envelope of the house is internaly divided by a core, where bathrooms and staircase are located. On the north wall there are in-built bookcases and cabinets - continual storage wall, which is furnished according to the rooms and events connected to it. Location of the storage furniture at the northern side also improves the termal properties of the house.

The continuous drawers, bookcases, cabinets and closets enhance the linearity of the house. The continual space can be divided according to current needs with the use of movable walls which, when closed, create standard and compact rooms. Thus there is no corridor, but a library, cloakroom or simple enlargement of the rooms.

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Full project at: http://world-of-jk.blogspot.com/2012/01/project-daycare-centre-for-elderly.html

2011

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DAY CARE Deep inside the city, between towering blocks there is a place - a little private piece of world where man can find calmness, where he can feel safe and where he can attend to his own hobbies - a place which many of our grandparents might miss: Their own house with a garden.

It is separated from its surrounding with solid, yet transparent walls; below the space is full, above it is empty. It is a place with family atmosphere, a place with a kitchen, living

Prague

E CENTRE ǁŝƚŚ KŶĚƎĞũ ƵƓĞŬ

room, study. A place with a terrace, greenhouses, lawns and flower beds with tulips and roses. Everyone can find his place to share his interests.

The house is not enclosed. - in summer it become spart of its surrounding, when its inhabitants bring the tables out to create informal café. The house does not stand in a way. It stands beside. It does not create connection, that is not its purpose, yet there is new and legitimate connection besides it.

The garden does not stand in the way either - it is above it. Its view into treetops is its extension and wall alike - it provides a feeling of safety and necessary overview - the inhabitants see, but they can be seen as well.

The house is put together in a same way as our grandmother’s patchwork - it adds until unique piece is created. The house adds program until it is complete. Every program has its unique requirements, it creates its unique image. When you put them together the relations become apperant: Open café; transparent but separated office; living room as a central space; quiet library which opens only to itself; enclosed and mysterious chapel.There are no walls and doors, only spaces with their appearance and locations: A patchwork of changing carpets and furniture.

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Full project info at: http://world-of-jk.blogspot.com/2012/01/project-congress-tower.html

2008

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CONGRES

Prague

SS TOWER There was a task of getting a predominantly horizontal program into a vertical volume of limited size. A task of getting four different programs with different requirements and manifestations into four different towers, that - alas! - had to look similar enough to create four cornerstones of one public space.

Obsidian-black blocks of 30x30x100m became the base - each was to get its uniqueness from just one important element of its program - a climbing wall there, a congress hall here.

Thus a conflict of vertical and horizontal became dominant topic of the Congress Tower. The Hall is ominpresent - it shapes the entrance hall as much as it shapes the hotel floors. Its cantilever becomes the building’s own advertisement: Where the tower itself hides behind a residential block the hall is always visible from the very entry point of the area.

It is a building of paradoxes: Its temporal program contrasts with the long-lasting desire for permanent main square, as much as its spatial configuration collides within the tower itself; its noticable and unnatural height is shyly hidden behind the corner, yet it carefuly peeks out with its most important space; it is a bold gesture of indiferent city district.

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Full project info at: http://world-of-jk.blogspot.com/2011/12/project-new-city-airport.html

2011

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NEW CITY Airport is always an exhibition of its city - a building that amaze the arriving people and calm those who leave. The airport halls are sculptures, which we only recognize when we stand next to it and feel so small in its shadow. Those are scuptures that become even more appearant in the information age, when a view from above is no longer a privilage of a few.

The departures hall as an icon of an airport slowly lose its meaning with the lost importance of the hall itself. The departures hall as an icon simply does not work - its strictly one-way program works only when you are already leaving the city. What is left is only a grid of flows and relations without any aesthetical quality which only strives to get the best place: a place on the crossing, a point of exit draw an elementary form of line oriented by historical development and programatic simlicity. Its lenght is given simply by quantitative requirements of the airport. Multiply it by an area requirements per passenger and you get a width - line becomes a rectangle. Add the requirements of traffic and the need to separate flows - rectangle becomes box. Elementary form of an airport without false exhibition.

Airports are manifestations of paradoxes where simple construction meets with structural engineers’ orgy. The forests of concrete and steel columns leaves the most majestic space - the departure hall - to the symbolic large-span structures.

But there is no longer an arrival and a departure, hotel by the airport, parking around the corner.

Prague

Y AIRPORT There is only one place, one entry and exit to the city, gate where you can shop, where you can sleep, where you can work. Wherever you are leaving the city or you are about to enter; or you are simply a bystander. Every flows cross here. There is chaos - so typical for all the cities and so alien to all the over-organized airports. A place that gives us freedom of movement and acts, but that requires sophisticated system of aides and visuals.

Todays airport is a diagram. Maybe this is not right, but our laziness requires it. We do not want to think where to go, we expect to be navigated. Not by the space itself, the chameleon which changes with every destination, but by a diagram, text, icons - a stable system that dominates airport architecture.

Airport is not a city; it is not a world either. It lies somewehere in between - it is the last piece of the city we see when we leave it, despite us being already on the way. It is a place where those travelling feel at home while those whoe stay can feel the respect to the world that lies just a few steps beyond - as a man walking the seashore promenade bows to the vastness of a sea.

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Full project info at: http://world-of-jk.blogspot.com/2011/12/project-haarlem-connected.html

2009

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HAARLEM C Mankind has crossed certain treshold of complexity. It is no more possible for the cities to organize themselves - it is not possible, or perhas demanded - for more than 500 years. We live in ages of planning and design.

But what was originally an idea of creating better and beatiful environment degenerated into perservation of useless and redundant, into blocking the needed and replacing the lively surrounding with artificial constructs.

We need to revise our understanding of the process of creation. Our environment is not a piece of art, an avatar of someone’s ideas. It is organism, that evolves on its own, whether we influence it or not. We cannot execute complete control over it - the results would be short-lived. We need to find center point, the right amount of control. This is true for design, but mostly stressed for planning, which often evolves into a new level of design itself.

On the other hand, this is not a bad thing. Both are a side of a coin. Maybe we should leave the specializations out and start thinking about complex approach (for complex cities). After all, architects, designers and planners alike are creators of environment.

So how should we think about our environment (not just cities, but landscape also)? First of all, it is important to realize, we are not alone in this. The planners and designers fulfi ll the role of a manager more then ever. We are here to organize - to be able to find the problems, come up with quality - and of course creative! - solution

Haarlem

CONNECTED and to be able to iclude everyone in the process.

Like doctors, we must be able to diagnose, to listen to the patient. Only then we can come up with solution to the problems.

We must also be a “psychic”, to see all the little signs, to pick them up and to assemble a “vision” of the future, to predict what will be going on.

We must act as a diplomats, to negotiate a resolution with all the parties. often seen as enemies.

When designing architecture, the rules should be simple. But to keep them simple, the context must be kept simple as well. This is where the urbanists come to scene - they basicaly decide the context of different elements. They design the public space, but they DO NOT design the architecture.

That is the reason why we should start looking for a different way how to influence our cities as a whole, without actually keeping control over every detail - a task that is virtually impossible and it is unresponsible to try and achieve it.

We should always have in mind the Bigger Picture - the region, the world, but the time as well - and we are here to explain it, to give it out to the others, so they can follow it as well. We can use it ourselves, to create and to activize the city, to push it the right way. This all is fi ne, as long as no one is ordered what to do with his own assets. Then the creative process die and the planning seize control of our environment.

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