"The competition is exceptional in that it focuses on the comprehensive quality of projects, monitors the layout and overall solution, while giving space to the youngest students," said the dean of the faculty, prof. Ladislav Lábus at the start of the online broadcast of the announcement of winners on 25 February 2021. "Congratulations to all those who, in the difficult situation of distance learning, managed to reach a project that is so highly evaluated by our commission. The results are surprising by how mature they are, including the presentation of projects, "added the dean and reminded that participation in the competition prepares students for an environment in which they will move their whole lives, compete for contracts, work, and try to be visible and present my job. "The results show that we have skilled students and great teachers," said the head of the Institute of Building Science, prof. Michal Kohout, who accompanied the online broadcast.
Of the eight finalists, a jury composed of Ing. Petr Bouřil (chairman of the jury), Ing. Peter Lacko, Ing. arch. Matyáš Sedlák (for the independent part), Ing. arch. Šárka Sodomková and Ing. arch. Vítězslav Danda (for the dependent part), decided to award six projects. As last year, the jury did not award the first three places, but four prizes and two honorable mentions. The reason was the different nature of the awarded projects and their assignments, as well as the fact that none of the winners significantly outperformed the others. The jury praised the high level of project elaboration, given that it was the work of second-year students who had no experience with studio projects, and that the projects were created in a distance learning regime that could not provide full-time compensation for students and teaching in studios directly at the faculty.
The following projects won the jury prize:
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Pod Slovany/Na Moráni by Romana Rétiová from the Koucký studio, the jury appreciated the good work with the context of the place, the urban design of the plot.
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Bydlení Podbělohorská by David Šaffek from the Kuzemenský studio, the jury liked the sophistication of the project and its habitability. The author visibly did a lot of work.
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Projekt Transitus by Lada Zapletalová from the Lampa studio. In its evaluation, the jury emphasized the admirable large-scale design in the context of housing development.
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Bytové domy Kreuzberg by the team of Vojtěch Janoš and Jan Johanides from the Hlaváček-Čeněk studio. The jury was convinced by the composition of the courtyard facade and its expression.
The jury awarded honorable mentions to the following projects:
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by Ondřej Fiedler from the Kuzemenský studio, especially for his visibly large work devoted to examining the habitability of the environment, sovereign visual processing and creative layout solutions.
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Jindřišská – Růžová by Daniel Krupka from the Valouch-Stibral studio, among others for her mature architectural expression, good work with the proportions of the house and a sensitive urban design.
You can read the final report of the jury here.
And how did teachers and their students react to the award?
Prof. Roman Koucký emphasized that many students did an incredible amount of work and took a big step in their professional lives. "Last year, the jury criticized us for entering too complex an assignment and unnecessarily burdening students, but I have experience that it is worth getting students into the real world of more difficult tasks," he said in recognition of his student Romana Rétiová. Romana Rétiová added that despite the difficult course of creating the project, just before Christmas, the project finally "came out", and so she managed to successfully complete it.
Michal Kuzemenský remarked that it is great that there are ‘vertical’ studios where the younger learn from the more experienced how to be bold in their designs. Student Ondřej Fiedler from his studio said in a thank-you speech that it was a great, and especially rich and nutritious, semester.
Dalibor Hlaváček awarded his two awarded students Vojtěch Janoš and Jan Johanides for their cooperation in the team, because they had a difficult task and fought with it with honor.
The awarded proposals, including all 44 nominations, can be seen at least until mid-March in the atrium of the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University in Prague and for an indefinite period also in the online gallery on the website in the Gallery / Competitions section.
It is necessary to thank the secretary of the competition, the architect Jana Kubcová, and the PR staff of the faculty for the organization of the competition and its historically first online opening.
