The Transgas building in Prague, designed by the architectural team of Václav Aulický, Ivo Loos, Jiří Eisenreich, Jindřich Malátek, and Jan Fišer, became a symbol of shifting historical contexts. It evoked strong emotional responses—both at the time of its construction and more recently in the public debate surrounding its demolition. The authenticity, intensity, and polarity of these emotions (e.g. #SOSBrutalism) led the curators of the upcoming exhibition to approach one of the original architects, Jan Fišer, Professor at the Faculty of Art and Design at UJEP, with the idea of a one-time, symbolic “resurrection” of the building’s interior layout. This would be presented primarily through drawings, working sketches, and historical architectural documentation, placing contemporary viewers within the techno-optimistic and techno-brutalist visions of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Jan Fišer’s drawings, technical yet distinctly aesthetic, and in their own way delicate and sensitive, offer a unique perspective that reinterprets a frequently “retold” story. They speak to the inspiration that buildings like Transgas provide to younger generations of architects and designers, as well as the need to protect, interpret, and historically contextualize 20th-century architecture, without neglecting the political background of the Husák-era normalization. For all these reasons—especially the latter—the exhibition titled Our TRANSGAS (Náš TRANSGAS) is set in the ground floor of a normalization-era residential block on Masarykova Street (formerly Fučíkova) in Ústí nad Labem. This housing was built following a politically driven demolition of the original historical fabric of the neighborhood in the 1980s.

As part of the exhibition, Jan Fišer will also design a new outdoor architectural intervention for this specific urban environment—both continuing the brutalist spirit of the original Transgas complex and at the same time revitalizing the currently degraded and dysfunctional public space in the very center of Ústí nad Labem.

The distinct atmosphere of the local panel housing block—shaped by social exclusion—may spark further discussion about the utopian ideals of late modernist architects and the utterly unscrupulous ambitions of the political elites of the time. Fišer’s historical work will be confronted with new artworks by other invited artists, created in response to questions around the legacy and demolition of the Transgas complex—this time driven not by ideology, but by contemporary economic pressures, particularly those of real estate development.