Of Natural Flows and Architectural Currents

Nico Andreas Heller in Conversation with Lenka Petrakova.

Lenka’s futuristic designs are inspired by her study and love of nature. Improvements in technology, digital design, AI integration and material developments enable her to design organic structures, often on an epic scale, that promote community, are sustainable and operationally highly efficient. Beauty in architecture, as in nature, she maintains, is not a goal in itself, but the manifestation of a well-functioning organism. Is this where the architecture of the early 21st century is headed?

In this dialogue, we reflect on some of the dominant currents in architecture today (beyond sustainability) and how these currents impact Lenka’s practice, before taking a closer look at The 8th Continent, a private project she has been working on (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Nr_R3sNSvQ ).

Lenka Petrakova is an international architect who has worked in New York, Los Angeles, London, Vienna and Bratislava. Since May 2017, she has worked at Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) in London, where she is the Lead Architect. She has worked on over 40 projects in 10 countries and spent most of her time working in high-rise building design. Her personal and academic work has been exhibited internationally in Venice (Venice Biennale), Vienna, Zlín, Bratislava and Beijing. She has received numerous awards, including the 2020 Grand Prix Award for Architecture and Innovation of the Sea from Foundation Jacques Rougerie Génération Espace Mer - Institut de France and the Zlín Design Week Award for Innovation in 2017.

For more information about Lenka Petrakova, please visit lenkapetrakova.com.