The Architect of the Year award was received by the artist Kateřina Šedá

Prague - The Architect of the Year 2017 is the artist Kateřina Šedá. The recipient of the Chalupecký Award for young visual artists engages in what is referred to as social architecture. She focuses on working with people and employs dozens, if not hundreds, in her projects. The jury of the award, presented at the FOR ARCH fair, stated in its justification that the purpose of architecture is to provide a spatial framework for various expressions of life.

Kateřina Šedá's projects mostly take place directly in villages or in the streets of cities. Experiments with interpersonal relationships aim to lead participants out of established stereotypes or social isolation. Through their own, sometimes provoked activities, she attempts to awaken lasting change in their behavior.

"Kateřina Šedá is one of the most interesting contemporary artists. (...) What Kateřina Šedá does is not architecture. Kateřina deals with relationships between people, and that is what architecture grows from. It is an immensely important activity, and architects should be aware of it," stated the jury.

"I was surprised by it (the award). Abroad, where I often work on projects, they call it social architecture. For them, it is a kind of architecture that is not built from bricks but from a different material," said Šedá today to ČTK. "However, I did not expect to place in a competition that rewards classical architecture. Jury member Josef Pleskot stated that it is quite a fundamental message for the public, as he wants to convey that architecture is not just bricks," she noted.

"I am somewhat interdisciplinary; I don't quite belong anywhere, and I am everywhere; the award pleases me, but I certainly do not have the ambition to build something in the future. My ambition is more to drive people out of the buildings that the architects build," she recalls her actions in public space. "However, I often collaborate with architects, I select places that perhaps lack funding, wanting people to be able to change them themselves. I try to come up with various activities so that people can function in those places and that they don't see the buildings they dislike... these are also different ways of working with architecture," the artist explains.

The Architect of the Year Award is an honorary title awarded annually to an individual who has excelled or consistently excels in the field of architecture and significantly contributes to its good reputation. The organizer - the ABF company, the organizer of the fair, wants to emphasize the close professional connection between the builder and the architect with this award. This year, the jury also nominated the studio ORA, Projektil architects, and the 4AM association for the shortlist. It also awarded an honorary mention, which went to the mayor of the municipality of Líbeznice, Martin Kupka.