XXIII. General Assembly of the Czech Chamber of Architects - report

On April 16, 2016, the XXIII General Assembly of the Czech Chamber of Architects (ČKA) took place at the Faculty of Business and Economics of Mendel University in Brno. More than 150 of its members registered for the event. One of the main agenda items was a discussion on changes to the ČKA Competition Rules, which govern the rules for architectural competitions, and other internal regulations of the Chamber. The legislative theme did not leave the general assembly even during the presentation of the Chamber's activities over the past period. Since January 2015, ČKA, together with other chambers established by law, has been an official consultative body for the creation of new laws and regulations, which has logically reflected in its activities. Among the key laws that ČKA provided feedback on are, for example, the amendment to the law on the practice of authorized architects and the practice of authorized engineers and technicians involved in construction, the amendment to the Building Act, and the entirely new Public Procurement Act.

This year’s guests of the general assembly included Tomáš Sklenář, Director of the Department of Spatial Planning at MMR, 1st Vice Chairman of ČKAIT Alois Materna, and President of the Construction Council (SIA ČR) Jan Fibiger. Foreign guests from cooperating chambers within the V4 were also present, including Chairman of the Slovak Chamber of Architects Imrich Pleidel, Deputy Director of the Slovak Office SKA Olga Miháľiková, and Board Member of the Polish Chamber of Architects Borys Czarakcziew.

In addition to the Czech Architecture Award, which the Chamber announced in January for its first year, one of the main topics of the general assembly was also the issue of spatial planning. The situation regarding the creation of spatial plans for large cities is perceived by the majority of the architectural community as very concerning. The spatial plan of a given settlement is, after all, the most significant document that governs and influences development in a given area for many years to come. The capital city of Prague and the second-largest city in the republic, Brno, are both preparing new spatial plans. Both plans must be completed by 2020, when the current spatial plans will expire. The complicated situation, not only in relation to the events surrounding the Prague Building Regulations, is thus present not only in Prague but also in Brno. For this reason, the general assembly assigned the ČKA board to take extraordinary care regarding the state of spatial planning in the Czech Republic in connection with the current developments surrounding the amendment to the Building Act.

Elections to the Chamber's bodies were also held. The new members of the board are Vojtěch Mencl for the Moravia and Silesia region and David Hlouch for the Bohemia region. Jaroslav Šafer and Radek Kolařík defended their mandates for the Prague region. The chairpersons of the bodies will be elected at the upcoming meetings. The election of the ČKA chairman will take place on May 3, 2016, at the first board meeting after the general assembly.

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