Support the publication of the book Steel Cities on the theme of logistics. This book discusses the transportation of consumer goods in its widest possible contexts, from urban planning and architecture through ecological impact and working conditions.
Author: Galerie VI PER
In Gallery VI PER, we try to present architecture in its wider contextual framework. In the spring of 2019, we hosted the highly successful exhibition ‘Logistics Landscapes’ by the curatorial team of young architects Kateřina Frejlachová, Miroslav Pazdera, Tadeáš Říha, and Martin Špičák. The exhibition brought up a theme relatively little discussed in Czech public life – the transportation of goods, which is one that nonetheless quite closely affects all of us.
Even while preparing the exhibition, the idea arose of publishing a book on this subject, which from this moment on became the subject of intensive preparation, focusing on the crucial ramifications of the logistics industry, such as working conditions, labour migration, impact on the landscape and environment, the influence of intensive transport, changes in the regions and many other ideas.
The book has been prepared as an edited series of texts based on the research or architects, sociologists, environmentalists and artists, supplemented with interviews, photographic sequences, thematic graphs and maps. Because several international experts contributed to the book, we decided to publish Steel Cities as a bilingual Czech-English volume.
The book has been conceived by the architects Kateřina Frejlachová, Miroslav Pazdera, Tadeáš Říha and Martin Špičák.
Steel Cities is divided into four sections investigating from various standpoints the legislative, economic, social and environmental backgrounds for the current system of logistics complexes. It discusses the architectonic typologies of warehouse halls, the urban planning of logistics centres, the rapid construction speed and the related temporality, human scale and human movement, spatial isolation of logistics centres linked only to superior (international) infrastructure and still further questions.
Texts were contributed to the volume by recognised experts in this area, among them sociologist Bohuslav Kuřík, philosopher Lukáš Likavčan, political scientist Petr Mezihorák, legal specialist Tonia Novitz and sociologist Rutvica Andrijasevic, architects Kateřina Frejlachová, Miroslav Pazdera, Tadeáš Říha, Víctor Muñoz Sanz, art historian Philip Ursprung, pedologist Jan Vobořil and others.
The authors of the photography series are Zdeněk Porcal (Studio Flusser) and Jan Kolský. Map analyses were prepared by architect Martin Špičák.
The book’s graphic design was the work of Anežka Hrubá Ciglerová.
Thanks to the English translation (author Martin Tharp), we hope to offer the book for international sales in cooperation with the press Park Books.
What did these places look like before the construction of today’s logistics warehouses?
These were fields!
The book has been published by Gallery VI PER, located in the Prague neighbourhood of Karlín. Our interest is in architecture and public space in the very widest sense of these concepts, in the further contexts of contemporary art, urban design, media, technologies, politics, economics or ecology. We present themes with a wide societal impact. We prepare 4 to 5 exhibits a year, with frequent accompanying events, issue publications, and hold lectures.
Irena Lehkoživová, Jana Pavlová, Barbora Špičáková.
The theme of logistics started with the exhibition in our gallery, and it seemed a wonderful idea to extend it with a well-prepared book.
Unfortunately, the financial costs for issuing a publication of the required quality for Steel Cities significantly exceeds our own possibilities. We hoped to provide fair compensation for the authors and contributors, as well as for the translation, the graphic design, and the proofreading. And we now understandably are faced with the costs of printing. For this reason, we decided to offer the book on Hithit and collect the remaining amount for our project here. We would be very glad if you could support our publication!
Comments