Speed Date / JAKUB KOPEC, architect

Jakub Kopec, na koni Tomáš Džadoň, foto Lynda Zein.

Where are you from?
Czechoslovakia.

Where did you study?
In Ostrava, Brno and Bratislava.

Who was your best teachers?
There were many. Karel Doležel in the role of an initial spark, Petr Hurník in the contagious fascination by city life, Ivan Koleček in designing almost nothing, Petr Hájek in doing everything differently, Jan Tabor in making organised chaos…

Who were/are your parents?
An English teacher and a water management structures draughtsman.

What don’t you enjoy in design?
Closedness, mastery, elitism, exclusiveness.

And on the contrary, what do you?
Openness, diversity, relatedness, creases, layering, palimpsests, coincidences, flaws.

What do you listen to?
Pavel Klusák’s music features.

Your favourite film or cartoon?
The Postman’s White Nights.

Who do you respect as an authority in and out of your field?
I don’t look up to any authorities, as they are an expression of power, hierarchy and superiority, and help produce elites.

The last thing you bought?
A book.

Do you buy professional literature? What was the latest book?
Archaeology of the Digital.

Do you vote?
Almost always.

Who throws best parties?
Matyáš Dlab.

Your favourite dome?
Sngg.

Party dress. Made by…?
Just no disguise.

Your hero from the past?
The Man Who Planted Trees

Best/nicest house?
Random.

Do you have any stereotypes when you work? How do they show?
Stereotypes are quite essential; I try to discover them, analyse and develop them further in learned repetitions.

What’s on your desktop?
A screenshot of an exploding house from the final scene of Zabriskie Point.

Best exhibition/artwork?
I am sitting in a room.

What do you respect both from the local and foreign scene? And why?
Its plurality, as it gives one an occasion to choose.

Morals or money?
Morals.

Extraordinary book?
Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia.

Optimist, pessimist, nihilist?
I know it can be worse.

Do you have any hobby?
I fancy playing football.

Slovakia as the Promised Land?
State formations are inherently problematic. There is no promised place without one’s own activity.

 

https://www.vsvu.sk/o-nas/katedry/katedra-architektonickej-tvorby/atelier-urbanne-strategie/
http://www.n-1.cz/cz
https://www.forum4am.cz