Jested in the Cage 05 - Festive Announcement

Ještěd f kleci represents the regular culmination of the semester at the Faculty of Art and Architecture in Liberec, where independent experts outside of academic grounds attempt to select the best student project from dozens of studio works. The fifth awarding of the 'cult prize Fatulu' took place on Tuesday, January 25, 2011, traditionally in the spacious studio of FUA, which that evening was hermetically filled with dozens of students, former graduates, and a number of other guests.
The chairwoman elected was Veronika Sávová, whose name has been associated with the Sporadical studio for many years. Other jury members included Professor Jiří Klokočka from the School of Architecture in Ghent, Belgium, editor-in-chief of the magazine Era 21 Osamu Okamura, and both leading figures from the Prague studio Pinkas Žalský architects.
Since last year's event, the Liberec 'hangar' has undergone two changes: Antonín Novák from the Brno studio DRNH has come to lead the studio, and first-year students must go through 'extended entrance exams' in the studio of Petr Janoš and Petr Šmídek. The jury awards ultimately went to these two new studios: first-year student Anna Svobodová won an award for her space in the treetop, and the main winner was Josef Habersberger with his project for the international museum of volcanoes in Lanzarote. The award for the best studio was traditionally received by Zdeněk Fránek and Radek Suchánek, affirming the dominance of the Brno 'art school' based in Liberec.
The uniqueness of JFK lies in the fact that the jurors are not bound by any predetermined categories, which reflects the spirit of the Liberec school. The jury sets its own criteria, and their selection is unaffected by anything else. This time, they decided not to categorize the projects but to nominate ten projects that stood out among the others, and from those, they ultimately selected the two best.
The award for Anna Svobodová was certainly a surprise for everyone. Like other first-year students, she had to tackle a trio of assignments in the winter semester, each of which she had no more than one month to complete. The theme of processing space in the treetops also came from the studio of Antonín Novák, which dominated this year's JFK awards. Anna Svobodová conceived her work as a meditative footbridge leading to a pair of dried trunks emerging from the surface of the Novomlýnská reservoir. Extraordinary maturity in clearly conceived designs can also be seen in the remaining pair of projects she managed to create this semester.
The award for Antonín Novák's 'volcanic team' was to be expected: four of them made it among the ten nominated. Most of the participants presented generous objects carried in the spirit of the Italian Superstudio. Ultimately, the juror was most impressed by Josef Habersberger's project, which treated the site with the most humility. Habersberger's design did not offer fascinating views of the surroundings, but his ring was gently embedded in the red crater, allowing for free walking along a circular ramp and closely feeling the energy emanating from the earth.
At Ještěd f kleci, people from outside are invited to contribute their independent views on the architectural projects that are born during the semester at the Liberec faculty. Recently, however, their selections have not been particularly surprising. The jurors' choice often falls on projects generally perceived among students and educators as the best, which only confirms the objectivity of the assessment. Each year, JFK gains prestige, but above all, it is a pleasant conclusion to the semester at FUA TUL.