The Architect of the Year 2018 award was won by Petr Hájek

Prague - Today, architect and educator Petr Hájek was awarded for his exceptional contribution to architecture over the past five years, receiving the Architect of the Year 2018 award. His well-known works include the reconstruction of the Archdiocesan Museum in Olomouc, the educational center of the Krkonošsko National Park, and more recently, the expansion of the DOX Center for Contemporary Art. An honorary mention from the jury was awarded to Dagmar Vernerová, who has been publishing the yearbook Czech Architecture for almost 20 years.

The announcement of the results took place at the Architecture and Urban Planning Center in Prague. The award is presented as part of the For Arch construction fair, emphasizing the close professional connection between the builder and the architect.

According to the jury, Petr Hájek is a prominent mid-career architect and an influential educator. His work represents exceptional achievements in the field of architecture with overlaps into other disciplines. The jury appreciated that Hájek's creations respond to the context while being distinct and experimental.

The architect has been long involved in urbanism as well. The jury highlighted significant works including the aforementioned Krkonoš Environmental Education Center in Vrchlabí (2013), the pavilion concept for the Venice Biennale (2016), and the winning design in the competition for the reconstruction of the Ostrava slaughterhouse into a gallery (2017). He has recently completed not only the extension of the DOX center in Prague but also the reconstruction of the water tower in Letná for a children's house and kindergarten.

Hájek was selected as the award winner by a jury comprised of architects Adam Gebrian, Josef Pleskot, Regina Loukotová, Marcela Steinbachová, and last year's winner, artist Kateřina Šedá, from five finalists. The other finalists included the CBA association, consisting of Miroslav Vodák and Tomáš Zdvihal, architects Zdeněk Fránek and Petr Hlaváček, and the studio Mjölk architects.

Hájek was born in 1970 in Karlovy Vary. He studied at the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University and the School of Architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts. In 1998, he co-founded the architectural office HŠH architekti now HXH (where he remains a managing director) with Tomáš Hradečný and Jan Šépka, and established his own architectural practice, Petr Hájek Architekti, in 2009.

For his work, he has received numerous awards, including the Grand Prix of the Czech Architects Association, Building of the Year, and the Prize of the Club for Old Prague for the best new building in a historical context, and he has been nominated for the European Mies van der Rohe Award four times. Since 2004, he has been a lecturer at the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University in Prague, where he was appointed professor in 2017. Since 2012, he has also led a design studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava.

Currently, he is designing and implementing projects for the reconstruction of the Oko Cinema in Prague 7, the astronomical observatory of Pirkštejn Castle in Rataje nad Sázavou, and the Cable Car Museum in Pec pod Sněžkou.