this school building is relatively "new" (2009–2011).
i attended in 1992-1995 the house "next door" (she mentions it in the doc as the building where everyone could hide — thus she trying for the opposite in the new building).
in the doc, there is ("next door") also a somewhat round building (technical library — containing also a gallery that i already mentioned in another thread).
neither the new school nor library was there in the 1990s (there were empty plots then).
but i visited the new school building several times (after it was built), listening to some public lectures in (from outside silly looking) auditoriums, etc.
unfortunately (to disappoint you), my projects were not really that fascinating.
and my creative genius peaked prior to converting to the Alena Šramková's tutorship.
besides the general education (carried out by regular teachers), we had our semestral projects done in the ateliers tutored by ppl who were usually rather loosely tied to school and prevalently were practicing architects (in the atelier, students of all the grades were present — there were usually 2-3 different semestral projects in the same atelier and thus according to the level of experience we were working next to each other on 2-3 different things).
so, for my two initial projects, i choose someone else (was yet too stupid to choose Alena).
my very first project suffered all the shortcomings of a nob designer.
my 3 other classmates (of the first grade) that choose the same atelier didn't do much better.
we all decided to stay in the same atelier and thus our tutor decided to let us design a "simple structure".
we were not supposed to provide the usual blueprints but just to build the big scale models of those "simple structures" (thus to learn basics — that we lacked).
however, it turned out his idea of a "simple structure" and our idea went completely astray.
we were doing things he didn't expect us to do, complete confusion started to prevail and i probably deviated the most.
instead of testing some structural details (in big scale models), i started to manufacture as a "simple structure" stuff you can nowadays encounter on the websites like "cabin porn" (meeting place of ppl who dream about living in a barrel like Diogenes) →
https://cabinporn.com/
my tutor (actually not a bad person and certainly a good architect) became increasingly disappointed with me and ultimately i stopped consulting with him and did my own shit regardless of his opinions.
i have built two models of two mildly ridiculous forest cabins.
i just got influenced by newly discovered John Hejduk's picaresque experiments of this kind ↓
and thus really didn't care to carry out any structural/technological investigations of a "simple (hi-tech) structure".
finally, the day has come we had our final official presentation of our semestral projects and when my tutor finally was allowed to see what i have done (in the last phase i did not only skip consulting him but also didn't let him to see what i am "constructing") he was shocked and angered.
i guess he felt i tried to shame him publically (to lower the repute of his atelier to the bottom).
all he did then was he came to me pissed off and whispered to my ear with a high degree of anger, "congratulations, great job!"
i ignored him (thinking "fuck you!").
then our semestral works were on display for the whole week in our ateliers (to be seen by the rest of the school, by the interested public, and by the jury giving school awards).
the jury was chosen from local architects not directly related to the school (3 people in sum).
one of the members of the jury then was David Vávra (an architect by profession but also a local monty-pythonesque actor — he is f.e. the odd guy who eats the castrated testicles in "Traps" by Věra Chytilová) →
https://letterboxd.com/actor/david-vavra/
i can't say for sure, but i am convinced he was the main culprit in my sole oficial artistic breakthrough in the field of architecture (the other two members of the jury were too sublunary to suspect them of finding my odd forest huts appealing).
i was awarded a special school prize for my "simple structures"!
in sum, there were about 5-7 regular awards and 2-3 special (minor) awards — picked out of all the projects done in all the ateliers.
it was announced prior to the official evaluation by our tutor, so i was really looking forward to what he will say while reviewing my "dream castles".
instead of being true to his original anger and despise, he suddenly (already knowing i am a laureate) started to blabbler that what i have created is actually not that bad, that it has its fringe charm, blablablablablabla and i received a mediocre mark/rating (instead of the worst rating that i expected a week ago — based on his initial response).
i was utterly disgusted by this blatant hypocrisy, took both my models (after the blablabla evaluation), and threw them in the garbage can right in front of the school.
it was actually a mild mistake cuz the prize was linked with a certain sum of bucks but the prerequisite to receiving those bucks was to display the project in the other (successive) exhibition of awarded projects.
i got to know this too late, was not able to rescue my models from the garbage can (had no blueprints, cuz the project was just making those big scale models) and thus didn't make at least once in my life some money via architecture.
tho, all the laureates were mentioned in then leading local architectural journal so i left a permanent trace in the local architectural landscape.
naturally, i didn't stay in the same atelier and moved to the one tutored by Alena.
she accepted me cuz she held my previous tutor in esteem (again, he was actually not that bad and it was not his fault that he encountered a "radical" & "untamable" neophyte).
she didn't investigate what exactly i did in the previous atelier (i didn't introduce myself to the point of highlighting that i attempted to "disrepute" my previous tutor).
if she knew, i am not completely sure she would accept me.
in comparison to the previous episode (drama), my years with Alena were peaceful and easygoing.
i started to really learn about architecture, got some mature insights, abandoned neophyte radicalism, never received any school prize again, started to realize i don't want to be one-dimensional professional solely focused on architecture, stated with my truancies (attending lectures on postmodern ethics, i.e. "anthropology of liers", by Miroslav Petříček, viz another thread), started to lose grip of all my uni duties, and ultimately embraced the life style of a dilletante polymath who pursues mainly his hobbies, not his profession.
"she's the high peak of simplicity, a grand ungrandness", "intensively extremely minimal" — yes, it was her prevalent message (that was so alluring to me).
yes, 1/ she designed a "normal school" for the "bastards" (students) so they would not consider themselves to be part of the elite (due to attending a selective educational institution), 2/ she placed pedagogues in "aquariums" so everyone can see they are "doing shit", and 3/ made somewhat silly pink-orange-violet auditoriums to contradict all the simplicity, minimalism and strictness with a mild tinge of mischief!
