Meet Matus Vallo, Bratislava’s hipster mayor-architect

In the manner of a child rebuilding an unloved Lego set, Matus Vallo ponders a model of a Bratislava streetscape in a corner of his office. Carefully, he positions a rectangular plate the width of his palm on a section of highway that has run through the capital of Slovakia since the 1970s. Just like that, a park over 200 metres long, suspended above the road, has eradicated a traffic-laden scar in the heart of the city. The transformation seems fanciful, an urban planner’s daydream. To turn it into reality would require the combined talents of an architect, a civic activist and a popular mayor. By some fluke Mr Vallo happens to be all three—and the answer to the question: what happens when an expert in building public spaces gets given the reins of a European capital?To run a city requires a plethora of political talents, from baby-kissing to haggling with central government for more funding. Mr Vallo brings different skills to the job. In 2018, as an architect with a thriving practice, the self-described “urban activist” rode a wave of political discontent into office (he had previously been more famous as the bass player for a popular rock band). His pitch to the citizens of Bratislava focused on the need to improve the look and feel of the place. “If you design better public spaces, you change the relationship residents have with a city, but also with each other,” he explains. A metropolis where children start walking to school, or locals meet at new outdoor cafés, is one whose fabric changes in untold ways. Mere politicians think residents shape the built environment to suit their lifestyle. It takes an architect to think it is the built environment that shapes its residents.