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From drinking buddies to architecture partners

Prague's 4a architekti shares the secret to its success

By Curtis M. Wong
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
June 20th, 2007 issue

Jan Přerovský/THE PRAGUE POST
Jan Schindler, Ludvík Seko and Leigh D'Agostino are the 4a architekti masterminds.
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Long before they’d ever collaborated on a project, the four partners of 4a architekti had forged a fraternal bond.
4A architekti

Na Valech 2
Prague 6
Tel.: 233 350 720
Web: www.
architekti4a.cz

The firm’s four partners — Leigh D’Agostino, Peter Hudák, Jan Schindler and Ludvík Seko — met as students at the Czech Technical University’s School of Architecture nearly 10 years before founding their Prague-based company in November 1997.
“First off, we were good drinking buddies at university,” D’Agostino says with a chuckle. “Together we discovered that we all had our own personal strengths and weaknesses in terms of our field. It’s quite a pleasure working with these guys; I actually love coming to work every day.”
COURTESY PHOTO
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COURTESY PHOTO
Prague-based architect firm 4a architekti, founded by four university buddies in 1997, has numerous ongoing projects around Prague.
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In the decade since opening, 4a architekti has proven a heavy hitter in the Czech design industry, with an established track record that includes both exteriors and interior plans of housing estates, shopping centers, hotels and administrative offices. Although business remains focused in Prague, the firm has recently handled projects in Slovakia, Hungary, Germany and Sweden.
After graduation, the university friends went their separate ways, landing jobs with Czech and German firms. But then, in late 1997, the foursome reunited as partners and took on their first collaborative project — a design scheme for the BASF offices, located in Prague 5. The 4,000-square-meter (43,056-square-foot) building plans so impressed the developers, 4a managed to land the lucrative project before it even had the chance to establish a physical office.
Located in a former café in Prague 6, 4a
architekti’s offices bustle with the activity of 30 employees. With most staff members in their mid-to-late 20s, the atmosphere here is young and inspiring.
“We want to pride ourselves on the design elements and not just do the knockout things that other firms do,” D’Agostino says. “Our buildings have to have an identity, and our aims are for design. If a job has no design element to it, then we don’t see the point in doing it.”
The firm’s 2007 agenda may be its most ambitious yet. Slated to open this year is the 30,000-square-meter E-Gate Office Center in Dejvice, as well as a 12,000-square-meter residential complex located in Smíchov. The firm is also designing the River Gardens residential and office complex in Prague 8 and the Utility Park West business park, which will provide more than 40,000 square meters of new office space near Zličín. In addition to all this, 4a is overseeing the plans for an elaborate residential and administrative complex that will replace the existing bus station above the Palmovka metro station.
Although the styles of projects have varied, D’Agostino describes 4a as having a “distinctive design brand,” often blending traditional forms with modern, minimalist elements. Developing an initial concept for a project isn’t always easy, he says.
“You have to be clear and focused from start to finish, and you have to make sure that the design concept fits the needs of the job,” he says. “Once you develop a strong concept, everything else tends to fall into place. It’s an evolutionary process as all design is.”
With each of the partners hailing from different backgrounds — D’Agostino is British, Schindler is Austrian, Seko is Czech and Hudák is Slovak — communication with potential developers in their native language is never a problem.
 “Of course, being able to speak to clients in their native tongue is very important in this business,” D’Agostino says. “Even though we’re from four different places, we’ve found that we all [complement] each other quite naturally.”   
“If I can always work with a team as good as this one, I will be happy,” Seko adds.
Critical to 4a’s success are its solid internal organization as well as its emphasis on creative elements, says one of the firm’s loyal developers.
“Architects often have brilliant ideas, but many can’t execute them well,” says Hans Weber, director of PDP-IRES s.r.o., which is working with 4a on the Utility Park West business park as well as an 11-unit housing project. “The 4a guys tend to defend their choices for the design elements in a project, which is exactly what they should do. They want to bring in their own ideas, and I think they have a certain style they advocate. That’s the right attitude.”
Looking forward, the 4a partners would like to extend to regions outside of Prague, both within the Czech Republic and further east. A sister office in Košice, Slovakia, is in preliminary stages, and there is talk of establishing a Ukrainian branch. However, just being able to maintain the firm’s current level of success would be enough to please the partners.
“In the past 10 years, I feel we’ve grown nicely,” D’Agostino says. “Mostly, we’d like to keep going as we already have been. We’ll be happy if we can maintain our level of business and the current number of employees for the next decade.”
For those interested in someday entering the notoriously cutthroat design industry, the 4a partners have a few words of wisdom.  
“Architects must all have creativity in their background,” Seko says. “I don’t think someone could just fall into it — you have to choose this field. You must be selective.”
D’Agostino echoes this sentiment. “You have to be specifically prepared as it’s not your standard 9-to-5 job,” he says. “It’s a vocation. An architect needs to be a jack-of-all-trades.”

Curtis M. Wong can be reached at specialsection@praguepost.com


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