Nominate Architect of the Year 2019

Until June 14, 2019, personalities can be nominated for the Architect of the Year competition. The award is annually granted to a significant creator who, over the past five years, has made a substantial contribution to architecture in the Czech Republic through their innovative approach, whether through outstanding architectural creations or support for quality architecture.

The Architect of the Year award aims to highlight the importance and significance of architecture and the built environment for our lives and the cultural development of society, as well as the important role of architects who can influence the quality of construction. At the same time, the award aims to spread awareness and promote quality architecture.
According to architect Zdeněk Franěk, a founding member of the jury, this award is exceptional and unique in our country, as it "wonderfully complements the mosaic of other awards given for architectural works or a lifetime achievement." While other awards granted by government bodies or professional organizations tend to focus more on evaluating work and buildings realized throughout a person's life, the Architect of the Year opens up long-term space for current outstanding activities and achievements in the field of architecture.
The award is not intended solely for practicing architects, but for anyone whose actions aim to create quality architecture, promote it, and support it. In the past, awards have also been given to artists like Kateřina Šedá, who experiments in public spaces, and architecture popularizers Adam Gebrian and Marcela Steinbachová. However, last year’s laureate was one of the most prominent architects in the Czech scene, Petr Hájek.
Individuals initiating exceptional creative endeavors, authors of buildings, theorists, publicists, and other personalities who have contributed to supporting quality and have shown engagement in the field of architecture can be nominated for the Architect of the Year award. Nominations will be evaluated by an expert jury consisting of laureates from previous years and other prominent personalities (architects Adam Gebrian, Petr Hájek, Josef Pleskot, Marcela Steinbachová, and artist Kateřina Šedá), who will select 3-5 finalists from whom the winner will be announced at a ceremonial event on September 10, 2019, at the Center for Architecture and Urban Planning (CAMP) in Prague. The jury strives for a comprehensive evaluation of the contributions of the nominated individual, whether in terms of protecting public interests and societal development, professional and moral integrity, influence on the creation of quality construction or public spaces and landscapes, the professional level of their work, or the use of innovative solutions, etc.
An integral part of the Architect of the Year award organized by ABF, a. s., is the special award Architect for the Municipality, which aims to highlight the necessity of good cooperation between architects and local authorities in the creation and planning of municipalities with an emphasis on the design of public spaces. The award is announced by the Ministry of Regional Development, the Union of Towns and Municipalities of the Czech Republic, and the magazine Moderní obec. The Architect for the Municipality competition also supports the role of municipal architects and therefore has a direct link to one of the aims of the Architecture Policy and Building Culture of the Czech Republic, which is to strengthen the role of city and municipal architects. Municipalities and cities, along with architects from across the country, can apply to the Architect for the Municipality competition with projects related to urbanism, spatial planning, and the realization of buildings that impact public spaces and the quality of life.
The Architect of the Year award has been granted since 2008. In 2013, its statute was changed: "We decided to adjust the statute and focus on the appreciation and support of active individuals. Thus, we aim to highlight the creative work of architects and other professionals who are involved in the creation of quality construction, as well as civic engagement," says the Chairman of the Board of ABF, a. s., Pavel Sehnal.

Composition of the Expert Jury - Architect of the Year 2019

Adam Gebrian
He graduated in 2006 from the Faculty of Art and Architecture at TU Liberec (where he also worked pedagogically) and, thanks to a Fulbright scholarship, completed a postgraduate program SCIFI at SCI-Arc in Los Angeles in 2008. He studied and worked in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Prague, Paris, and London. He does not engage in design but focuses all his efforts on promoting quality architecture. He works as an independent publicist (series on contemporary architecture for Lidové noviny, Respekt, etc.), participates in organizing Pecha Kucha Nights in Prague, was a member of the editorial board of the magazine ERA 21, commented on public space in the show Gebrian vs. on Stream.cz, and since 2009 has hosted his own show "Bourání" on Radio Wave, for which he received an Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Czech Architecture Award 2017. In 2015 he became Architect of the Year. He has curated several exhibitions, such as Urban Interventions Prague 2010, Brno 2011, Island of Treasures, etc. He was involved in the founding of the first private architecture school in our country - ARCHIP. Since 2013, he has been teaching at the Prague Institute.

Petr Hájek
He graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the Czech Technical University in Prague and the School of Architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. In 1998, he co-founded the architectural office HŠH architects, now HXH (where he is still a partner) with Tomáš Hradečný and Jan Šépkou, and in 2009, his own architectural office, Petr Hájek Architekti, s. r. o. Since 2004, he has worked as a lecturer at the FA CTU, where he was appointed associate professor (2010) and full professor (2017). He is the founder and chairman of the board of the Art-Now foundation for the support of art and talent and the founder of the Laboratory for Experimental Architecture (LEA). For his research project Anastomosis, he received the 2012 Rector’s Award of the CTU III. degree for applying research in practice. The writer Miloš Urban was inspired by him to write the novel Urbo Kune (2015), which takes place in a utopian city designed by students of his studio at FA CTU. In 2018, he became Architect of the Year.

Josef Pleskot
In 1979, he graduated from the Faculty of Architecture CTU in Prague, where he served as an assistant for three more years. He then worked until 1990 at the Regional Design Institute in Prague. In 1991, he founded AP ATELIER. Some of his most well-known works include the town hall in Benešov, a villa in Vrané nad Vltavou, a natural trail in Jelení příkop, and the passage through the ramparts of the Powder Bridge in the Prague Castle complex, the office building Palmova-Park in Prague-Libeň, the modification of the river bank of Loučná in Litomyšl, residential buildings and the reconstruction of the castle brewery in Litomyšl, the ČSOB complex in Prague-Radlice, the Sonberk winery building, or the residential building Procházkova 3 in Prague-Podolí. Josef Pleskot is among the most significant contemporary Czech architects and holds numerous prestigious awards, including the Grand Prix Architects. In recent years, his conversion of the Vítkovice Ironworks complex in Ostrava has been highly praised - he received the Architect of the Year 2014 award for the World of Technology.

Marcela Steinbachová
She graduated in 2003 from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (Emil Přikryl School of Architecture), where she also completed her doctoral studies. Before that, she studied at VŠUP (field of architecture) and at the Institute of Humanities at Charles University. In 2001, she founded the project Kruh, which organizes lectures on architecture (summarized in the collection Texts on Architecture, which she edited), and since 2007, she has worked as a teaching assistant at the AVU School of Architecture; in the same year, she founded the architectural association Skupina. She has received several awards for architecture, for example, Architect of the Year 2016, Award for Outstanding Achievement ČCA 2017. She supports education in architecture (e.g., the exhibition Rooms - possibilities of space, children's programs about architecture Kruh+), co-organizes Architecture Day, collaborated on the catalog Profession Architect(ess), is a dramaturge of the Film and Architecture Festival, a member of the editorial board of the magazine ERA 21, curator of the yearbook Czech Architecture 2016-2017.

Kateřina Šedá
She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague in 2005. A Czech visual artist whose work is close to social architecture, is the author of many socially conceived projects that she has realized in the Czech Republic and abroad. This year, she became the author of a project at the 16th International Architecture Biennale in Venice. She has been invited to create independent projects by organizations such as IHME in Helsinki, SFMOMA in San Francisco, or Tate Modern in London. Her work has received numerous awards, including the Jindřich Chalupecký Award, the Magnesia Litera for journalism, the title of the Most Beautiful Czech Book of the Year, and several international awards such as the Contemporary Art Society Award, Fluxus Award, etc. She has organized dozens of exhibitions and published over thirty publications in which she details her individual projects. She lectures about them at schools, in galleries, but also in smaller towns, where she tries to bring her activities closer to the widest possible audience, provoking them towards their own activity.

We asked the jurors
Is the "human dimension," as a universal starting point, still present in architecture, or is it fading away? What means can we employ to maintain it?

Petr Hájek:
In my opinion, the "human dimension" is always somehow present in good architecture, and I do not mean scale. For me, New York has a human dimension just like the gazebo in our garden, just in a different way. And this value will, I think, be there forever.

Kateřina Šedá:
The human dimension is fading from architecture mainly because people are insatiable - they need more and more space, more and more things, more and more relationships. Meanwhile, we all find ourselves in an era where the only real starting point (not just in architecture) is the climate changes of the planet and its future condition. Therefore, I see the solution primarily in mastering our own needs, in realizing how many things and how much space each of us needs, and in the ability to share as much as possible.

Josef Pleskot:
The "human dimension" is a very relative concept for me. As a universal starting point, it certainly cannot fade from architecture. The question, however, is, how large is a person really? I believe that the physical parameters of a person influence architecture much less than their spiritual dimension. And that spiritual dimension today does not seem to be very large! To prevent us from becoming rodents, it is worth pondering this deeply.

Submission of Nominations
Deadline for applications Architect of the Year 2019: June 14, 2019
Deadline for applications Architect for the Municipality 2019: June 10, 2019

Info
Ceremonial announcement of the results of the Architect of the Year 2019 competition: September 10, 2019, CAMP (Center for Architecture and Urban Planning), IPR Prague, Vyšehradská 51, Prague 2
Organizer of the Architect of the Year competition: ABF, a. s., organizer of the construction fair FOR ARCH
Organizers of the Architect for the Municipality competition: Ministry of Regional Development, Union of Towns and Municipalities of the Czech Republic, and the magazine Moderní obec
Partners: City of Prague, IPR Prague, SMO ČR, FOR ARCH (main partners), MMR, MŽP, ČKAIT (patronage), INTRO (main media partner), Moderní obec, ARCHITECT+, ERA21, archiweb.cz, ASB, Střechy-Fasády-Izolace, Stavitel, EARCH., PROPAMÁTKY, PRO města a obce (media partners)

Architect of the Year - Laureates
2018 Petr Hájek (expansion of the DOX+ Center for Contemporary Art)
/ Honorable Mention Dagmar Vernerová (Yearbook Czech Architecture)
2017 Kateřina Šedá (visual artist, awarded for promoting social ties influenced by architecture),
/ Honorable Mention Martin Kupka (Mayor of Líbeznice)
2016 Marcela Steinbachová (architect, awarded for promoting architecture)
Honorable Mention Michal Škoda (Curator of the House of Art in České Budějovice)
/ Architect for the Municipality Zdeňka Vydrová (architect, city architect of Litomyšl and Tišnov)
2015 Adam Gebrian (architect, awarded for popularizing architecture), Honorable Mention Petr Volf (publicist)
2014 Josef Pleskot (architect, awarded for the World of Technology in Ostrava)
2013 Antonín Novák (architect, awarded for the National Center for Garden Culture in Kroměříž)

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