VIII. Bohuslav Fuchs Award - Special Recognition

SPECIAL PRIZE
Architecture of Scarcity
Jan Adamus, Ondřej Bělica, Martin Blažek, Matúš Bocán, Jáchym Daniel, Tereza Dvořáková, Jakub Frolík, Michael Gabriel, Matěj Jindrák, Ján Juráš, Barbora Juríčková, Oliver Kažimír, Filip Kinnert, Matúš Peklanský, Lenka Půžová, Petr Preininger, Rostislav Stoklásek, Veronika Ševčíková, Tereza Teplá
supervisor: Ing. arch. Jan Mléčka, Ph.D.

We live in a world of abundance, where stocks and certainties have been replaced by temporality and consumption. However, are we prepared to withstand a situation where abundance is replaced by scarcity?
The aim of our work is an effort towards purposeful and effective management of excess in the context of today's settlements. We propose a series of measures addressing rural issues that would also serve as a mechanism to minimize the catastrophic impacts of a deep crisis. As current events suggest, such a crisis may appear much sooner than we will be able to respond adequately. By means of speculation, we subjected our chosen settlement unit to such events, and the knowledge gained helped us uncover the deficiencies and weaknesses of our current spatial and social arrangements of the world. We attempted to compensate for these deficiencies and restore balance through various tools, which is a manifestation of a healthy system.
It does not matter in what form the disaster arrives, but how we can confront it.

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PRIZE OF THE XELLA COMPANY
NO SPACE – Strategy for Gradual Utilization of Gaps in the City
Bc. Eva Horáková (6th year)
supervisor: doc. Ing. arch. Gabriel Kopáčik, Dr.

The pre-diploma project focuses on introducing the issue of gaps in contemporary cities. The introduction describes a general typology of gaps. Following the typology, a strategy for possible uses of the potential of gaps during their gradual transformation into public spaces before possible development is presented. This is described in the form of a kind of "first aid kit" created for this purpose. The work is divided into two sections - an analytical part and a design part. The analytical part focuses on gaps in the wider center of Brno and their classification according to the typology. The design part implements the procedures of the "first aid kit" on five selected typical gaps in Brno.
Textual commentary on the project:
This strategy tries to find some simple general procedures for developing potential and addressing the issue of gaps in cities. The aim is to develop something like a "First Aid Kit" for gaps and vacant spaces. A "First Aid Kit" where specific solutions can be found for specific problems, for different types of gaps. Something like a basic methodology for utilizing the capacities of vacant spaces in cities. The goal is to create intermediate stages of active use of a place between the state when a gap is inaccessible and unused and the state when it is finally developed with new buildings. The first aid kit shows certain phases in which individual gaps may find themselves. These are illustrated using the example of an imaginary gap (image on the left). In reality, of course, not all gaps go through all phases.
For the design part, five typical gaps were selected based on their typology of different spatial arrangements: gap after a solitaire, after a terraced house, after several houses, after a missing street, after a missing block.
Each gap is presented by its current state, typology, simplified ground plan, and simple spatial scheme. For each type of gap, the phases of the regeneration process are schematically designed. Usually, this concerns the design of public space and possibilities of building on the given site - by a solitaire, a block, several blocks, depending on the type of gap. These possibilities are presented through ground plans and spatial schematic solutions. The designs aim not to show the "best" solution but to highlight the variability of options available, if they exist. In some gaps, it may not be necessary to fulfill all phases, so the possibility of final development may be seen as fulfilling some final capacity of the city, with the potential need for its future densification.