Shared forms of housing or community construction can also help to increase the availability of housing. The design of such a model of house construction, in which its future residents jointly participate in the planning, financing and construction, was tested by the studio of Kristína Richter Adamson and Radek Suchánek against the backdrop of a small town. In addition to reducing the cost of purchasing an apartment, one of the main motives of such an association is the effort to create an environment for community housing and social proximity.

How to revitalize neglected and segregated areas while preserving their identity and social structure was the task of the studio of Gabriel Peni, Servie Boetzkes and Radek Brunecký. Their intention was based on the idea that supporting the diversity of ownership relations will contribute to ensuring housing for various social groups in a given location, including the most vulnerable ones.

Another aspect that the exhibition focuses on is segregation and social exclusion. Poverty is often concentrated in certain areas and neighborhoods, leading to the isolation and marginalization of their inhabitants. The exhibition asks how architecture can contribute to the revitalization of these areas and their reintegration into the urban organism. An important factor here is the support of community life and social inclusion. Architecture can create an environment that connects people from different social classes and promotes mutual respect and solidarity.

With this setting, the studio of Barbora Ponešová and Maria Joja began cooperation with the Vesna association, which focuses on socially disadvantaged groups, especially single mothers and Ukrainian families. Their Vesna lab examined the Brno infrastructure of available social and health care to open a debate on the current form of poverty, places of help and the role of design in alleviating these problems. Part of the tasks was to design minimal forms of housing suitable for people in need or for those who find themselves on the verge of so-called invisible poverty.

The most visible form of poverty is, on the other hand, homelessness, which represents a complex social problem with devastating impacts on individuals and society. People find themselves homeless as a result of a combination of many factors, such as unemployment, addiction, lack of housing or weak social ties. Solving this problem requires a very comprehensive approach and architecture is not the primary tool. Nevertheless, Vojtěch Jemelka's studio decided to deal with homelessness, in confrontation with the image of the city of Olomouc, which is portrayed as a historical architectural gem. In its project Poor Olomouc, however, it rather speaks of lifeless kitsch, the backdrop of which overlaps the everyday reality of many people who find themselves in a state of material, relational and psychological need. Students experienced firsthand how shameful begging is, mapped out places where homeless people are concentrated, and captured collages of their dwellings.

Poverty is no longer primarily a problem of the so-called global South, but with increasing intensity this topic is also being discussed in debates concerning the global North. One of the causes is climate change, which brings unexpected threats. Drought, floods, pollution, and land degradation hurt people's health, productivity, and living conditions, which can lead to a deepening of poverty. Poor people also have limited resources and options for coping with these problems. Jan Mléčka's studio asked itself the same question as the German economist Siegen Helge Peukert: how radical do we have to be in order for us as humanity to continue living on Earth? Peukert compiled several radical theses, the fulfillment of which should avert the thermophysical threat to humanity. Jan Mléčka's students sought an answer to what their application means for architecture.

Global conflicts, such as the civil war in Syria and Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, have triggered a huge humanitarian crisis, the consequences of which have also been felt in Europe to an unprecedented extent. However, Oleksiy Bykov’s studio focused on the situation in devastated Ukraine after the fighting ended and sought strategies that should help restore the country – cities, infrastructure, but also the architectural heritage, which is the physical source of the nation’s cultural identity.

The expansion of the spectrum of threats and the resulting uncertainty entails the radicalization of political positions and plays into the hands of populist leaders. Part of the weakening of the democratic system may also be the strengthening of the influence of corporate companies, which may seek to increase their power at the expense of the state and its institutions. What such a loss of the opportunity to promote the public interest through a functioning state and its replacement in the form of a corporate utopia could cause, is depicted by Jaroslav Sedlák’s studio.

The basic idea of ??Szymon Rozwalky's studio is that we can hardly aspire to eradicate poverty. Rather than a mistake or a temporary abnormality, we should consider poverty as an integral part of our world. Poverty has many faces and our duty, as well as that of architecture, is not to lose sensitivity to it.

Reflecting on the role of architecture in solving complex social problems is an integral part of this process, and the exhibition "Vector of Poverty" wants to be a part of it.

The exhibition "Vector of Poverty" shares a common theme with the exhibition "Poverty", which takes place at the Gallery of Fine Arts in Havlíčkův Brod and the Horácká Gallery in Nové Město na Moravě and was created under the curatorial supervision of Barbora Ilič, Michal Konečný and Stanislav Biler. Both exhibitions share a common theme, which is poverty, but they examine it from different angles and in different contexts. “Vector of Poverty” focuses on the relationship between architecture and poverty, with an emphasis on how architecture influences the lives of people living in poverty and how it can contribute to solving this issue. The exhibition “Poverty”, on the other hand, deals with poverty in a broader social and historical context, with an emphasis on the reflection of this topic in art from the Baroque to the present. Both exhibitions refer to each other, because together they create a comprehensive picture of the issue of poverty, which includes both its physical manifestations in architecture and urban planning, as well as its cultural and social aspects.

Organizers: Faculty of Architecture, Brno University of Technology in cooperation with the Brno City House of Arts

Location: House of the Lords of Kunštát, Dominikánská 348, Brno

Date: 19. 3. – 25. 5. 2025

Opening: 18. 3. 2025

Curator: Rostislav Koryčánek

Architectural framework of the exhibition: Eva Truncová

Graphic design: Alina Matějová

Participating studio leaders: Servie Boetzkes and Gabriel Pena, Oleksii Bykov, Marie Joja and Barbora Ponešová, Vojtěch Jemelka, Jan Mléčka, Michal Palaščak, Karin Písaříková, Szymon Rozwalka, Jaroslav Sedlák, Kristina Richter Adamson and Radek Suchánek, Marek Štěpán