Porota

Oto Nováček is an Urban Designer and Researcher from Slovakia currently based in Bratislava. During his studies he managed to attend several international projects connected to contemporary urban challenges, urban research and participatory planning in Belgium, Turkey, Germany, and Slovakia.  In 2016 he was researching informal practices of “Arrival city” in Hamburg and subsequent integration processes of immigrants into German system. In 2017 he lectured at JKUAT University in Nairobi on the topic of Slum upgrading, and later he acted as an advisor for urbanisation at Permanent mission of Slovakia to the United Nations in New York. Further he was actively engaged in research and design of social housing for Roma populace in Slovakia. Currently he is working at the intersection of practice and research at Atrium studio on the topic of collaborative creation of public spaces and autonomous urbanisation.

René’s work in recent years explores the contemporary and future forms of the urban border between the United States and Mexico. René is a coauthor, with Fiamma Montezemolo and Heriberto Yépez, of the book, Here is Tijuana, published in 2006 by Black Dog, London. In 2018, he co-edited, along with Tito Alegría and Roger Lewis, the commemorative edition of the book A Temporary Paradise: A look at the special landscape of the San Diego Region, originally prepared by Kevin Lynch and Donald Appleyard (COLEF 2018).

His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, Santa Monica Art Museum, Mexico House at the Embassy of Mexico in Washington, DC, Shenzhen Architecture and Urbanism Biennial 2007 and the Central Society of Architects in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 2015, his research on the Experimental Housing Project (PREVI) in Lima, Peru, was part of the exhibition “Latin America in Construction: Architecture 1955-1980” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2017, he directed Hyperloop West, a group that went on to become a semi-finalist in the global challenge competition organized by Virgin Hyperloop One. In 2017, Rene curated the Tijuana-San Diego exhibit space at the 2017 Architecture and Urbanism Biennial in Seoul, Korea.

Professional architect for almost 20 years and having worked a lot in international humanitarian action ...

Housing buildings, modernism in architecture, funcionality vs. aesthetics in architecture, technical details, tradition in nowdays