Construct on Site
by Viola Hertelova

portfolio special mention call 'Urbanautica Institute Awards 2025', 2025
Category: Representations of Space, Architecture, and Conflicts


Do we construct the urban landscape, we as its residents, users, or designers, or does the city itself construct, shape, and transform us? The visual documentary probe Construct on Site maps, through a series of found scenes from the environment of urban construction sites and provisional structures, points of rupture where the disturbed integrity of urban formations reveals the almost paradoxical fragility of their own foundations. The juxtaposition of collected—seemingly banal—objects and fragments of urban scenery draw our attention to anomalies whose interpretation, though left to the viewer’s judgment, subtly leads toward a broader social question. In this way, the photographic series does not merely offer a statement on the (in)stability of contemporary urbanities but rather proposes a wider reflection on where today’s “order of the city” truly originates. Viola Hertelová (born 1996) studied architecture (Faculty of Architecture, Brno University of Technology) and photography (Institute of Creative Photography, Silesian University in Opava). Working at the intersection of these two fields, she has long focused primarily on the critical dimensions of the visual document. In her independent series (Blank Cities, Urban Voids), which have also been exhibited internationally (Rovinj, Gröninger), she explores public spaces in contemporary cities. Her architectural photographs have appeared in magazines such as Dolce Vita, Dezeen, and ArchDaily. In 2024, she received the title Personality of Czech Photography Under 30. She is currently approaching the topic of visual architectural interpretation more comprehensively through her theoretical PhD research. Viola is a member of the 4AM Forum for Architecture and Media in Brno and the Sisters in Photography collective.


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