Speed Date / JAN HORA (ORA), architect
Where are you from?
Znojmo; originally from Louny.
Where did you study?
Faculty of Art and Architecture TUL.
Who was your best teacher?
I don’t do charts.
Who were/ are your parents?
My mother was an apprentice teacher; my father worked in engineering.
What don’t you enjoy in design?
Clichés.
And on the contrary, what do you?
Layers, surprises; I like to be amazed.
What do you listen to?
Electronic junk.
Your favourite film, cartoon, series?
I really hate charts, I stopped doing them when I was about 15…
Conan the Barbarian (1982), Fight Club, Vals Im Bashir, The Great Beauty, Solaris (2002), The Dark Knight, and more recently The House That Jack Built and Knights of Justice.
Who do you respect as an authority in and out of your field?
I have admiration for all good architects. But at the same time, I don’t worship anyone, that’s what I grew out of.
What thing did you last buy?
A book.
Do you buy professional literature? What was the latest book?
From my last order, Carusel Confessions Confusion, Legislating Architecture Schweiz, a newly published text by Jan Michl that debunks functionalist doctrine “Funkcionalismus, design, škola, trh” [Functionalism, Design, School, Market], “Jdi na venkov!” [Go to the country!].
Do you vote?
Always.
Who throws the best parties?
Mostly I try to avoid it.
Your favourite dome?
The Pantheon.
Party dress. Made by…?
I wear things until they start falling apart on me.
Your hero from the past?
Tyler Durden.
Best/nicest house?
There is no such thing.
Do you have any stereotypes when you work? How do they show?
A certain fetish of shabbiness. I’m still fighting that overdone sentiment.
What’s on your desktop?
Nice neat little groups of icons.
Best exhibition, work of art?
Demartini in Louny at the Přikryl’s Gallery. An epiphany I had when I was growing up, and it affected me irreversibly.
What do you respect both from the local and foreign design scene? And why?
There’s an awful lot of it. The current Flemish scene and the way they approach reconstructions in a disjointed way. I enjoy these clusters of booths and constructions. If you want some names, like OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen, Caruso St John Architects, arquitectura-g, Brandlhuber+, GRAUX & BAEYENS architecten, 6a architects, etc…
Ethics or money?
That’s obvious.
Extraordinary book?
In no particular order: anything by Karel Čapek, Platform, The Gentle Barbarian, The Cement Garden, One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Non-Referential Architecture, “Architektonika a protoarchitektura” [Architectonics and Protoarchitecture], …
Optimist, pessimist, nihilist?
Neither.
Do you have any hobby?
Not really… growing tomatoes… canning.
Solo or in a collective?
Whatever.
Slovakia as the Promised Land?
No?