The winner of the Diploma Thesis Exhibition 2020 is Jakub Wiesner from UMPRUM

1st Prize: Jakub Wiesner, UMPRUM
Prague 10 – Trash
Supervisor: prof. Ing. arch. Ivan Kroupa
The shifting boundaries of the city often forget and create places within the urbanism that refuse to dissolve within it; their form is held by the lines of transport infrastructure and their own strange character. The area between tracks, rail yards, and parking stations; the colonies of Slatiny and Trnkov, Bohdalecký hill, the Michle Heating Plant, and fragments of urban civilization scattered somewhere among them.
Originally peripheral territory, which with the development of the city around it (or standardized urbanism in its historical transformations), finds itself near the city center / and surrounded by the city. At the same time, it is an area with poor permeability, 90% of the development is in normal terms "trash," whether from a construction, functional, or urbanistic perspective. Currently, there is pressure for the development (redevelopment) of this area. The desire for development is understandable; the place needs to be brought into the present, it is okay to activate its potential. However, I disagree with the way this will likely happen – i.e., the takeover by block development, the vision of (maximum) urbanization, normalization.
The diploma thesis deals with a specific part of Prague, dirty and complicated, yet carrying qualities that are inherent to it. The work seeks solutions at the urban scale through the creation of frameworks that allow for a certain level of spontaneity. These frameworks can take the form of infrastructure, a set of rules, or specific architectural or landscape interventions. The work arises in opposition / and as an alternative to the prevailing approach to the creation of the contemporary city in our country (the return to block development from the 19th century), which is uncritically applied to diverse environments and is automatically accepted as the only correct solution.

Jury Evaluation:
B. Fragner - It impressed with its systematicity and coherent approach; it deliberately disrupts the prevailing approaches and design dogmas in contemporary urbanism, which are now more commercially motivated urbanization of peripheral and development areas of the city; it highlights the importance of diversity, based on their uniqueness.
T. Jiránek - Comprehensive, holistic, and additionally aesthetically beautiful. No attention was forgotten regarding paths and permeability. Property arrangements are a challenge for the author, not a complication. The unattractive becomes attractive. It feels the terrain, landscape, and human presence. An active approach from the architect.
A. Mičeková - Comprehensive, holistic, and additionally aesthetically beautiful. No attention was forgotten regarding paths and permeability. Property arrangements are a challenge for the author, not a complication. The unattractive becomes attractive. It feels the terrain, landscape, and human presence. An active approach from the architect.
M. Mitášová - The most complex urban and architectural project in the competition, which answers the posed questions by transforming the design frameworks.
It formulates its own research and creative task: to explore the nature of the environment and formulate the bases for its future development – regardless of who will design it! It offers an analysis of the neglected area of Prague (Bohdalec – Slatiny), for which there is already a project for its "urban development" (block development with maximum construction exploitation of the site). This diploma project rightly and creatively debates this. It analyzes acquired data (parceling, vacant lots, regulation of Slatiny, prospects of their development, but also property relationships and the adjustment of land ownership in Bohdalec…). It distinguishes and monitors the movement of water and people within the area. It analyzes existing and proposes new infrastructural frameworks. It suggests new connections where they are lacking (intermezzo). It proposes the expansion of greenery – on all these grounds, it offers a new urban layout and division of the environment. This project is a civic-urban initiative, an urban and architectural debate, landscape creation, and at the same time a new urban framework for further development. If "research-investigative urbanism" has not existed so far, this project has the potential to establish it in the Czech Republic.
P. Volf - The project shows how to save seemingly not very valuable areas of the Prague periphery from traditional developers' encroachment. It is not just a realized vision capturing the genius loci and reaching its essence, but primarily a way and detailed guide that can be followed. The place gets a chance that would be a shame not to utilize.

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2nd Prize: Julie Kopecká, FA ČVUT
Station in Pec pod Sněžkou
Supervisor: doc. Ing. arch. Tomáš Hradečný

The design of a new railway station in Pec pod Sněžkou is part of the 2009 project to extend the railway line in Úpské valley in the Krkonoš. It demonstrates possible solutions to the current problems caused by the ever-increasing tourism and consequently automobile traffic in mountainous areas. Almost the entire route runs in a tunnel, and thus the station itself is embedded in a slope. The design also includes adjacent public spaces and a bus stop along with a new connection of the station via footbridges.
The station is conceived as a simple transport building, whose use clearly establishes rules and limits that directly affect the appearance of the building. It is a structure as hidden as possible in the slope, which, through its neutral material setup, resembles classic so-called transport galleries known from Swiss mountain roads.
Because most of the new route runs through tunnels, it was important to allow as much light as possible into the building at the location of the station and connection tube. The façade formation is inspired by old film windows that allow the viewing of individual frames like a film when rotating at high speed. In this case, the façade grid determines the train's speed – the faster the train goes, the fewer the windows are. Conversely, the more the train slows down, the closer the openings are placed together. This enables an almost uninterrupted view from the train outside.
Throughout its length, there is a sidewalk that ends with two bridges. They guide passengers to the correct height toward the places they need so that they do not necessarily have to descend into a lower level.
The stop is located in the city center and it is possible to reach it in winter directly from the ski resort on skis, or in summer by bike or on foot. This is also related to the new bus turnaround with a stop placed above the stream in close proximity to the station. The former bus station is replaced by a public space with a new cable car building connecting the city center with the ski area.

Jury Evaluation:
T. Jiránek - A confident entry into a mountain resort. It is a generous landscape work, not just a construction of transport infrastructure. Over time, a place disturbed by various building investments over the last 60 years is calmed by the design, despite the substantial task assigned. As the last stop on the line from the regional center of Trutnov, it appears as part of a task for lower stops. It suggests initiating the assignment in Pec, rather than ending there.
B. Fragner - The project is undoubtedly also a gesture; at first glance, it oscillates to the fragile edge, characteristic of aggressive construction interventions associated with technical elements, but ultimately convinces through sensitivity to the natural environment. Its landscape-forming intention stands out by merging constructions and the used materials with the terrain, responding to local climatic conditions and operational demands, adapting to the specific landscape character.
A. Mičeková - The design appears to be an utterly sober and humble example of architecture without pathos. It is an illustration of a possible typology of railway stations connected to sensitive landscape solutions. I was particularly impressed by the complexity of the design, which addresses issues within the region, transport, and even minor architectural details.
M. Mitášová - One of many ways of handling the often-overlooked task of designing transportation buildings, in this case in a tourist and skiing resort of the Krkonoš National Park.
P. Volf - A railway station of the twenty-first century in the context of a sought-after mountain locality, which would – in the case of the planned route being realized – help to resolve the dire transport situation. A sensitive integration into the structure of the place, convincing minimalist yet dynamic approach to the building itself, which expands the existing typology of railway stations.

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3rd Prize: Veronika Chalupová, MENDELU
Options for Landscape Solutions of the Large Water Works in Vlachovice
Supervisor: doc. Dr. Ing. Alena Salašová

This diploma thesis aims to address the issue of large water reservoirs from the perspective of landscape architecture. The study assesses the impacts of water constructions on the landscape and the requirements for establishing waterfront and accompanying vegetation.
Using the specific example of the planned reservoir in Vlachovice, a landscape analysis is conducted from the standpoint of natural conditions, historical and present usage of the landscape. Values of natural, cultural-historical, and aesthetic importance are identified. Subsequently, the influence of the planned water construction on the landscape is evaluated.
Based on the obtained findings, the foundations for the design are set. The proposal consists of a concept with basic principles for organizing the area after the construction of the Vlachovice waterworks. It also considers the protection of landscape values.
The proposal also offers a universal approach applicable not only during the construction of the dam but also during the overall regeneration of the landscape and its adaptation to climate change. It comprises a water management proposal with a whole range of measures in the landscape. In detail, it focuses on the options for landscape solutions of accompanying and waterfront vegetation.
The discussion raises questions about interdisciplinary cooperation in the planning processes of dams, the role of landscape architecture in this process, and whether dams have a future.

Jury Evaluation:
B. Fragner - A project with extraordinary tenacity offers a confrontation with the landscape impacts of a large water work. Through detailed, targeted interventions, it returns a vision - but perhaps more so a modern illusion - of an authentic natural environment. It links to the ongoing discussion about the form of cultural landscape.
T. Jiránek - The construction of an extensive engineering project necessarily needs to be integrated into the landscape. Functionally, landscape wise, and through attempts to reconcile with the place. This was achieved by the author with a well-developed landscape and water management vision in the details of an extensive project.
A. Mičeková - A precedent approach and diligent work in relation to the landscape and its inhabitants lead toward improving the potential impacts of implementing an engineering water facility. In the addressed proposal, sensitivity is elegantly connected with expertise.
M. Mitášová - The most complex landscape creation project in the competition, which timely highlights that the planning of water structures must be synchronized with landscape creation, including its suitable water regime (from river sources to the dam). The landscape task is the project of regeneration and preparation of the landscape with the water work for climate change. The proposal assesses the anticipated impacts of the planned water reservoir (landscape analysis). It recommends adjustments in forest management at river sources, revitalization of structurally balanced and buried waterways (meanders, pools, berms), creation of a rich habitat in the upper ends of the dam's flooding (combination of habitats of flowing and stagnant waters in river deltas), and it also recommends the protection of selected vegetation and historical structures (the latter would deserve an architectural analysis), including the construction of "new buildings" and new recreational areas (the latter should again deserve an urban-architectural competition!). The project formulates landscape consequences of the existing technical-economic water study with a planned construction in 2030. It neither trivializes nor exaggerates the climate crisis, preparing the landscape for gradual changes with proven and tested landscape alternatives.
P. Volf - A well-developed representation of the dam's impact, which will radically and irreversibly change the character of the landscape. The diploma work operates not only with the immediate surroundings but also with wider connections. It introduces aesthetic qualities that are otherwise neglected in similar projects.

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Honorable Mention: Blanka Štuříková, FA VUT
Project Space: Cemetery without Graves
Supervisor: Ing. arch. MArch. Jan Kristek, Ph.D; Ing. Arch. Jaroslav Sedlák

After the complete transformation of human remains into fertile soil, the grave becomes unnecessary. The deceased lose their posthumous address.
From a cultural perspective, however, the ritual of burial and the symbolic, mental value of the cemetery plays an important role for humans not only when coping with the loss of a loved one but also as a place of confrontation with our own finitude, a dynamic unity of the whole.
The design works with the culturally conditioned idea of a cemetery as an image of the world.
With the disappearance of tombstones and urns, it abandons the concept of a cemetery - a city of the dead and reinterprets it as a cemetery - a landscape.
Remains in the form of fertile soil become the material for the modeling of a biodiverse cultural landscape, a place where life thrives.
The essence of the design lies in utilizing the principle of spatial collage as a method of shaping the environment, allowing for individual interpretation by the individual through its ambiguity and evoking memories.
A specificity of the technology of posthumous composting is the complete transformation of remains, including bones and teeth, into fertile soil within approximately 30 days in a technological composting coffin. The process involves creating an extremely favorable atmosphere for decomposing microorganisms, which in the technological coffin, in the presence of sawdust, straw, and a controlled air atmosphere, create temperatures between 60 and 70 degrees Celsius and carry out the decomposition.
At the cost of a certain depersonalization, transforming material vestiges, the body posthumously literally becomes the basis for new life.
This leads to a restoration of continuity, the natural cycle of life and death, which thus regains its meaning.
The cemetery landscape is intentionally composed as a biodiverse landscape, and depending on the choice of native plant species and wood species in the Czech Republic, it provides sustenance for the maximum number of animal species, thus making the area beneficial to its broader environment from an ecological stability perspective.

Jury Evaluation:
A. Mičeková - A highly discussed conceptual design that offers us the spectacularity of images and visual projections controlled by the bizarre intricacy of the logistics of solutions. It touches on a sensitive subject of cultural traditions, raising many disconcerting questions. However, it is a valuable contribution to further discussion.
M. Mitášová - The only project in the competition that offers a radical innovation of the established functional and morphological urban-architectural type, in this case: the landscape of the final farewell. It alternates burial and cremation with the possibility of controlled biological decomposition of human remains into rich humus: fertile soil – the nutrient base for newly established meadow landscapes and orchards with biodiversity centers. It preserves the ritual of the final farewell while offering a newly conceived experiential environment for it. In a time when in the Netherlands they bury people even in coffins made from mycelium ("ecological sarcophagus") and when Czech mass media pose the yet unanswered question of how to deal with the decaying bodies of pandemic victims in "COVID plastic bags," which must not be removed before the funeral, it poses a chillingly urgent moral and urban-architectural problem. Cities and groves of the dead alternate this project with a landscape of paths and trails, framed and signposted "promenades," buildings, meadows, and orchards. The question persists as to what architectural tasks this entails…
P. Volf - A bold conceptual work presenting a vision of the cemetery of the future. It combines a purely technocratic, detached approach, but also an artistic, almost spectacular conception. The project raises a number of questions that we hesitate to confront, and that might be its most important aspect.

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Honorable Mention: Vojtěch Rudorfer, FA ČVUT
NY-ÅLESUND Hangar for Research Airship with Scientific and Technical Equipment
Supervisor: prof. Ing. arch. Mirko Baum, Ing. arch. Vojtěch Hybler

Ny-Ålesund is one of the northernmost scientific stations on the planet and at the same time one of the most important centers for polar research. Many atmospheric measurements today are conducted from helicopters, which is neither economical nor efficient, and this method could be replaced with a much more sustainable way - measuring from an airship, which is why we engaged in the design of an airship hangar. Moreover, it respects the footprint of a wooden hangar from which the first flights over the North Pole took off in the 1930s.
The specific typology spiced with extreme conditions of Norwegian Svalbard could appear abstract, but it has quite a real context.
The design primarily addresses several problems:
- Foundation on a slope in Arctic conditions of permafrost, thus touching the ground as little as possible and keeping the main construction above ground due to the snowfall
- Spanning a large span across the entire hangar without internal supports
- Opening doors and connecting to the track
- A runway serving for the landing/takeoff of the airship
- Modularity and prefabricability of the construction
- Transporting to the polar circle and easy assembly.
The hangar touches the ground only in a few places - it is point-based on piles over elastomer bearings along the longitudinal axis of the building and anchored with cables on the sides. The whole structure rests on a massive load distribution steel grid with relieving openings, resembling the hull of a boat or the frame of an airplane. Upward, the structure becomes lighter; the dimensions and geometry of the structure are governed by the needs of the hangar's operation and the local climatic conditions. Temperate and heated spaces for accommodation and research, based on fiberglass prefabricated cells, are inserted into the span of the load-bearing tubular construction "goats," which connect the floor grid with the roof made of space truss type Mero with a fiberglass façade. Throughout the building and across different types of construction, the use of Platonic solids and their geometric-static advantages is permeated.

Jury Evaluation:
A. Mičeková - A specific project that operates on the other side of the spectrum of creation, oscillating on the edge of constructive sophistication and architectural solution. I appreciate the systematic conclusions and the use of mathematical approaches.
M. Mitášová - In the previous case, it was about the culture of human community in the landscape of Moravian black earth of the temperate zone; in this case, it is about the scientific community on Arctic permafrost beyond the polar circle. The question is not how to convert the remains of Earthlings into soil but how to allow them, even with an airship, to live at the scientific base in extreme conditions. These are ancient and new questions of “inhabiting the frozen land” and involving air currents in the design of architecture: a modular and transportable building that touches the ice as little as possible… a large span without internal supports… a spatial frame based on triangulation with a specific joint… Without nostalgia for the first men and women in flying machines, for Russian constructivism, for high-tech. With a bit of nostalgia for mechanization… but also with a rediscovered craftsmanship and imagination. Persistently utopian yet so relevant, the designer-architectural task: how to build a "solid base" on ice from which not even a swan could take off without it? How to harmonize modularity with a capsule, a closed hall with opening garage doors for the flying airship and objects moving on tracks? How to reconcile stasis with movement across the ground and flight in the air...?
P. Volf - Architecture as a manifestation of construction. A realistic shell for a romantic means of transport set in harsh climatic conditions. A precise presentation of the construction system, including numerous calculations and detailing execution. The author knows exactly what he is doing. Everything is under control. The project is characterized by perfectionism that is uncommon in universities.

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