Marcela Steinbachová is one of the most prominent Czech architects

Prague - Architect Marcela Steinbachová (41), who this week won the Architect of the Year 2016 award for her extraordinary contribution to architecture, is one of the most prominent figures in contemporary Czech architecture. She is known not only among professionals as a promoter of architecture. She is behind the establishment of the Kruh association, which has brought dozens of architects from around the world to the Czech Republic for lectures, discussions, and workshops, and organizes Architecture Day. She has also a number of awarded projects to her credit.

Steinbachová is a co-founder and leading figure of the architectural association Skupina. Among other things, she is the author or co-author of the interiors of the Komorní scéna Aréna theater in Ostrava, the reconstruction of the Aerokino and Světozor cinemas in Prague, the Franz Kafka Bookstore and Library in Prague, the interiors of a production and administrative building in Hodonín, the solution for the new exhibition on the history of transportation at the National Technical Museum in Prague, and the permanent collection of the Ostrava Museum as well as several family houses in the Czech Republic and abroad (Switzerland). Her most significant realizations include the reconstruction of the Franz Kafka Society headquarters in Prague, which she worked on together with the famous American architect Steven Holl.

The Architecture Day event, which has been held since 2011, has become very popular with the public. It takes place annually in several dozen Czech and Moravian cities. Architects and theorists bring participants closer to the architectural, landscape, and urban contexts of the given location.

Steinbachová is also the dramaturge of the Film and Architecture festival, and last year she realized the exhibition Rooms at the House of Art in České Budějovice, where she attempted to bring architecture closer to children. She is also the editor of the anthology Texts on Architecture and collaborates on the catalog Occupation Architect(ess).

Marcela Steinbachová was born on March 31, 1975, in Prague. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts under Emil Přikryl and also studied architecture at the UMPRUM (Higher School of Arts and Design). She also completed undergraduate studies at the Institute of Basic Educational Studies at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University and many foreign internships. She has received several awards both at home and abroad, such as the Hlávka Prize for her diploma project at the AVU. Since 2007, she has been an assistant professor at the AVU School of Architecture. She gives lectures on architecture and supports education in architecture.