The Honor of the Czech Chamber of Architects will be awarded to Jiří Suchomel and Ivar Otruba

The Czech Chamber of Architects (ČKA) will announce the laureates of the ČKA Honor Award for the years 2017 and 2018. This will take place during the nomination evening of the Czech Architecture Award on Monday, June 10, 2019. The ČKA Honor Award for 2017 will be awarded to Prof. Jiří Suchomel, and the ČKA Honor Award for 2018 will be awarded to Prof. Ivar Otruba. Since 2000, the Chamber has been honoring prominent figures in the field of architecture with this award.

Proposals for the award are submitted annually by the professional public, including members of various bodies of the Czech Chamber of Architects. The laureates are then selected by a professional jury. The jury that proposed the award of the ČKA Honor for 2017 to Professor Jiří Suchomel included architects Michal Kuzemenský, Jan Sedlák, Marcela Steinbachová, Ondřej Beneš, and Osamu Okamura. The jury that awarded the ČKA Honor for 2018 to Professor Ivar Otruba consisted of architects Ján Stempel, Ivan Wahly, Vladimír Šlapeta, Iveta Černá, and Dagmar Vernerová. The Czech Chamber of Architects grants this award to individuals in the field whose work and moral credit have made a significant impact on the modern history of Czech architecture.

ČKA Honor Award for 2017 - Professor Jiří Suchomel

Professor Jiří Suchomel (* September 14, 1944, Kladno) is a Czech architect and university educator, a patriot of Liberec, but also a person of global stature. He is one of the founders of the Faculty of Art and Architecture at the Technical University of Liberec and its former dean. He has worked both in the Czech Republic and abroad, in both his architectural creations and his pedagogical activities. During his studies, he practiced in 1965 at Landbauamt in Donauwörth, worked in 1966 at the George, Trew and Dunn studio in London, and in 1969 also with architect Gottfried Böhm in Aachen; as an educator, he served, for example, in 1990 as a lecturer in the Design International program at the Université du Québec, in 1991 as a visiting professor at the College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan, and in 1994 as a visiting professor at the Faculty of Architecture at the Technical University of Munich. Noteworthy works include the 1980 competition proposal "Tegeler Hafen" for IBA Berlin, awarded 2nd prize (with J. Eisler, E. Přikryl, M. Rajniš, and D. Vokáč), the residential buildings IBA in Berlin (with J. Eisler, E. Přikryl) in 1985, the Czech House for the European Village - international construction exhibition Bo01 in Malmö (with J. Pelcem and S. Staňkem) in 2001, or success in the competition for the reconstruction of the Reichstag in Berlin. Professor Jiří Suchomel is associated with the Liberec SIAL (Association of Architects and Engineers in Liberec), which he led during the years 1991 - 1994. Among the realizations, one can mention, for example, the following in Liberec - the District Branch of the Czech State Insurance Company, the Syner Palace, or the Information Center and Building G of the Technical University in Liberec.

The proposal for the award for Professor Jiří Suchomel was submitted by architect Jiří Žid, "as a gift at the right moment to mark the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Faculty of Art and Architecture at the Technical University of Liberec." Thanks to Jiří Suchomel, the faculty was officially established on December 1, 1994. Its establishment was preempted by the Liberec Summer School of Architecture, which Jiří Suchomel organized and which had been held several years earlier. Liberec architecture, founded with the slogans "small, open, dynamic" contributes, in agreement with both the proposer and the jury, "significantly to the development of the architectural scene in the Czech Republic." The jury also appreciated Jiří Suchomel’s openness to the world in his pedagogical activities: "Even within his pedagogical work, Professor Suchomel presents with great detachment and does not hesitate to assign current, global tasks."

ČKA Honor Award for 2018 - Professor Ivar Otruba

Professor Ivar Otruba (* August 18, 1933, Kyjov) is a Czech landscape architect who has significantly influenced the development of his field in the Czech Republic - his importance is essentially impossible to overestimate. He is the author of numerous landscape architectural designs both in the Czech Republic and abroad - he designs and implements spa parks, restorations of historic gardens and parks, botanical gardens and arboreta, cemeteries and family gardens. He is also involved in garden exhibition. He has made a significant impact through his pedagogical work and as an author of professional publications; at the same time, he is a prominent popularizer of European garden and landscape architecture. He is a founding member of the Czech Chamber of Architects. Examples of his work include the timelessly architecturally conceived Botanical Garden and Arboretum of Mendel University in Brno, the spa Karlova Studánka, the botanical garden in Štramberk, the spa Bardejovské Kúpele, the Kamencové Lake complex in Chomutov, the restoration of the castle garden and park in Mikulov, the Brno Trade Fairs and Exhibition Grounds, and many projects such as the Jezeří Castle area, cemeteries in Most and Chomutov, which, in terms of artistic quality, significantly exceed Czech and international standards. Between 1990 and 2000, he conceived the education of future landscape architects at Mendel University in Brno, where he is an emeritus professor.

The nomination for the award for Professor Ivar Otruba was exceptionally strong (it was submitted by the Department of Landscape Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture CTU in Prague, the Faculty of Horticulture Mendel University in Brno, the Department of Garden and Landscape Architecture at the Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources CZU in Prague, the Czech Association for Landscape Architecture, Petr and Markéta Veličkovi, Susanne Spurná, Tomáš Jiránek, and Jakub Chvojka, Terra Florida (Zuzana Štemberová, Markéta Mádrová, Jan Sulzer, Lada Veselá, Lucie Vogelová), and Robert Pokluda). The jury "unanimously appreciates Professor Ivar Otruba not only for his lifelong contribution to the field of landscape architecture but also for his contribution to the education and development of future landscape architects." They recalled that during Ivar Otruba's studies, "the training of landscape architects in our countries was just beginning to take shape, and there was nothing to build on," thus he devoted a great deal of effort to self-study. He was also interested in visual arts and art in general. The jury acknowledged the uniqueness of the Brno arboretum built according to Ivar Otruba's own design. "Over fifteen years, a unique collection of plants was created here, whose coherence, scientific and artistic conception was and still is at a European level," the jury members appreciated.

Overview of the ČKA Honor Award Laureates
2018 - Ivar Otruba
2017 - Jiří Suchomel
2016 - Martin Rajniš
2015 - Bohuslav Fuchs (in memoriam)
2014 - Věra Machoninová
2013 - Rostislav Švácha
2012 - David Kopecký (in memoriam)
2011 - Karel Prager (in memoriam)
2010 - Viktor Rudiš
2009 - Emil Přikryl
2008 - Miroslav Baše (in memoriam)
2007 - Alena Šrámková
2006 - Miroslav Masák
2005 - Karel Hubáček
2004 - No award was granted
2003 - Josef Polášek (in memoriam)
2002 - Josef Havlíček (in memoriam)
2001 - Vít Obrtel, Otto Rothmayer, Oldřich Stefan, Zdeněk Vávra (in memoriam)
2000 - Petr Vaďura, Bedřich Rozehnal, Ladislav Žák (in memoriam)

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