Lead Dušan 2018 - festive gala evening

The Society of Architecture Listeners, operating since its revival in 1993 at the Faculty of Architecture CTU, held the jubilee 25th edition of what has become a cult competition on the evening of March 15, 2018, which was one of the first Czech architectural competitions at the time. As tradition dictates, prominent figures in the fields of architecture and design were nominated to the jury; the annual nature of the event also ensured several interesting surprises.

The Lead Dušan was established in 1993 by the Society members; its goal was to contribute to the evaluation of teaching at the largest Czech faculty of architecture through an independent, external perspective. Since then, every regular student who submits and presents their semester project automatically participates in the competition. Exceptions are made for diploma projects and first-year works.

From these projects, several nominees are gradually chosen, and then the winning one is selected from more than a thousand students in the fields of Architecture and Urbanism and Landscape Architecture. Similarly, a project is chosen among the students of Industrial Design. The winning architectural studio is also selected from forty regular architectural studios at the faculty, and a design studio is chosen among four studios.

Also considering the jubilee edition, this year the jury was assembled to be capable of reflecting on the transformation of student works over the past decades. Thus, among the jury members in the Architecture category were the founders of the competition: Martin Rössler (chair) - a graduate of FA CTU, co-founder of the design office Prostor 008, and Josef Smutný - a graduate of FA CTU and the Prague AVU, currently leading the atelier ILEX Design and having served as vice-chairman of the Czech Chamber of Architects. Other jury members included Barbora Šimonová - a graduate of AVU dealing with the theme of manipulative strategies in media and interpersonal relationships; landscape architect Marie Gelová and Petr Dub focused on the confrontation between architecture and visual arts.

The traditionally three-member design jury was chaired by Jiří Přibyl - a graduate of FaVU in Brno, co-founder of the design studio, focusing primarily on product design; Sofya Samareva - a graduate of graphic design at UMPRUM, primarily engaged in fashion design; and Michaela Tomišková from the design studio DECHEM, which works with glass.

This year, for the first time, the jubilee gala evening was held in the New Building of the National Museum, the former Federal Assembly of Czechoslovakia, which was renovated in the 1960s by one of the most significant architects of that time – Karel Prager. He generously placed an expressive extension above the structure of the interwar Prague Stock Exchange, providing facilities for the deputies, which is all executed as a construction of a massive Vieerendaal beam. The iconicity of the building contributed to the atmosphere of the festive evening held here on March 15, 2018.

The evening was hosted by a pair of students from FA CTU – Anna Blažková, the current head of the Society, and Jakub Klouzek from the Industrial Design field.

First invited to the podium was the jury for the Design category. It first announced the winning project, which became the Variable Shelf System by Lucie Koudelková. The jury described it as: “Technically completely refined and practically perfectly solved”

The winning studio, for several times in a row, was atelier Jaroš, Gonzales, where the jury appreciated the attention to detail, materials, and the thoroughness of each project.

The second part of the evening was dedicated to the field of architecture. The jury nominated 8 for the narrow selection, as it stated: “The selection was extremely difficult.” Nevertheless, the jury unanimously agreed on the winning project, which became the Memorial of Three Resistance Movements, located at the birthplace of the Mašín family, designed by Walbert Schmirler in the studio Hradečný. The victory was commented on by Petr Dub, stating that it was a brave, timeless, yet current solution, combining fine arts with architecture.

The winning studio in the architecture field was chosen from a narrower group of four nominees. They stood out for both the consistency of the studio's work and the specific concept or presentation style. The clear winner was atelier Michal Kuzemenský. According to the jury, there was nothing to criticize about it; the work with the students and the thoroughness of all the projects was palpable.

However, the jubilee edition was accompanied by two additional events following the announcement of the winner. The first took place purely under the auspices of the architectural jury, which seemed to decide to follow the words of F.L. Gahura and decided to award another Lead Dušan statuette for lifetime achievements to an individual who had a significant impact not only on teaching at the Faculty of Architecture. The Extraordinary Lead Dušan was thus awarded by the chair of the architectural jury Martin Rössler to prof. Alena Šrámková, an emeritus professor at the Faculty of Architecture and the author of the building where the institution currently resides. The well-deserved award was met with several minutes of standing applause. Professor Šrámková herself then appreciated all the projects and the purpose and level of the competition.

The second event was largely symbolic: the main coordinator of the Lead Dušan, Michal Liska, currently the deputy head of SPA for sponsorship, invited the dean of the Faculty of Architecture CTU, Professor Ladislav Lábus, to the podium. Together they briefly spoke about the competition and its purpose, after which they unveiled the “traveling” Dušan, the Stanley Cup among Dušans, which is made in life-size, tenfold size, featuring plaques with the names of all past winners and will be placed in the FA building in the coming days. This concluded the evening ceremoniously.

The competition is accompanied by a catalog, which was given to all attendees of the gala evening and is also available in room 441 at FA CTU, where SPA is located. From April 2, 2018, for one month, an exhibition of all nominated projects will take place on the piazza of the National Theatre.

More information >