Patrik Kovaľ - State Scientific Library in Prešov
Bachelor's Thesis in the studio Buček/Horatschke

City of Prešov (Hungarian: Eperjes, German: Preschau, Rusyn and Ukrainian: Prjašiv, Russian: Prjašev, Polish: Preszów, Latin: Fragopolis)
A regional city located in Prešov Region. With a population of 90,187, Prešov is the third largest city in Slovakia. It has four cadastral parts: Prešov, Šalgovík, Solivar, and Nižná Šebastová. It lies in the eastern part of Slovakia at the confluence of the rivers Torysa and Sekčov in the Košice basin. It is surrounded by the Slanské Hills to the east and the Šariš Hills to the west. It is an economic and administrative center of eastern Slovakia. Historically, since the granting of city rights, it has been the center of administrative activities. This is due to its geographical location, as it is situated at the crossroads of former significant trade routes leading from Poland to Hungary and Ukraine. Geographically, Prešov is located exactly at the 49th parallel, with an elevation of approximately 255 m above sea level. In terms of education, Prešov has 21 elementary schools, 23 secondary vocational schools, 9 gymnasiums, and Prešov University, which has 8 faculties (Faculty of Arts, Greek Catholic Theological Faculty, Faculty of Humanities and Natural Sciences, Faculty of Management, Faculty of Education, Orthodox Theological Faculty, Faculty of Sports, Faculty of Health Sciences). The preservation area of Prešov, highlighted in the image, was approved by the government of the Czechoslovak Republic on July 11, 1950.
In 2006, an architectural competition was announced for a new building for the State Scientific Library with a large-capacity warehouse in one place. The winner of the competition was the Bratislava studio SDPe. To this day, nothing has happened. For my design, I adopted the building program and requirements from the original assignment but changed the location and plot. The original plot was located in housing estate III, which I found to be a not very good solution, so I used a free plot just outside the preservation area in the city center. It is more accessible from public transport stops and is situated in a quieter part of the city. The free plot has an elongated shape and lies directly above the preserved historical wall of the city fortifications. The plot is further bordered by Kmeť's treeline on one side and an unnamed street on the other side (formerly Duchnovičova). Nearby, we find the Jonáš Záborský Theater, the Regional Police Directorate, and about 6 secondary schools.

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Julie Floriánová - Idea, Reality, Memory
Master's Thesis in the studio Environmental Design, prof. Mgr. Jaroslav Brabec

The Master's thesis "Idea, Reality, Memory" deals with the process and way of knowing a person. This person is Jindřich Hojer. A personality that inspired Jaroslav Foglar as a model for the honorable boy from Rychlé šípy.
I depict his personality through a bibliophile book. However, it is not a classic biography.
My book is more of a personal touch, a mosaic of memory fragments, and a summary of a human life.
I used thermosensitive and photosensitive pigments, which corresponds to the profession of Jindřich Hojer, who was a chemist.
Photochromic pigments react to light (UV radiation) by gaining color.
Thermochromic pigments, on the other hand, lose color with heat.
An artifact respecting and stemming from the essence and environment of Jindřich Hojer's life.
The book reflects both the content and the form of Jindra and can be said to be a topography of his personality.

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Vojtěch Stoklasa - Upper and Lower Hrádek
Master's Thesis in the studio Suchomel/Šaml

When studying the urban structure of Hrádek nad Nisou, a visible terrain break occurs, above which the tightly-knit city is located, and below which is the depopulated Sudeten suburb characterized by a loose building structure, seamlessly transitioning into the landscape. When plotting this terrain break on the map, a promontory can be seen near the city center. This was artificially created during the 20th century for the supply of the Benar textile factory at the level of the 3rd floor. This created an outcropping that, from a phenomenological perspective, invites support or the setting down of something.

Upper Hrádek
The current center of the municipality is the Upper Square. If we examine its urban structure, we notice the church, which is reached by a narrow alley next to the town hall. The church seems to be simply too large for the square and sits in the second row. Continuing through this alley, we pass through the cemetery gate, and a wide oval space of the cemetery bordered by a wall opens up before us. In the center stands the Church of God in all its glory like a gem on a tray.
A similar experience is provided by Lékárnická Street, which is opposite the church across the Upper Square and leads into Revoluční Street. Again, crossing the slit in the compact building structure of the square opens up an open space in the courtyard. In Revoluční Street, we can continue through a portal between houses into Starý dvůr Street, followed by a street of terraced houses following the urban contour.
The character of the public urban space in Hrádek is narrow alleys followed by open space. Exhalation is a prerequisite for inhalation. We would not feel relief without experiencing anxiety.

Lower Hrádek
In contrast, there is an airy and loose suburb devoid of anxiety, with spatially oversized orthogonal Lower Square. This arose during the industrial era, at a time of great prosperity for Hrádek, which unexpectedly stagnated due to the expulsion of Sudeten Germans and the change of political regime. The square, where crowds were meant to gather, is empty and overgrown with greenery. Therefore, it is appropriate to derive from the dimension of inhalations and exhalations of Upper Hrádek, structuring a order corresponding to the dimension of the municipality. I see this as sustainable development for Hrádek nad Nisou.

Factory Complex
The Benar factory complex is tightly linked to Upper Square, accessible via a narrow alley, following which the promontory opens up. The potential of the promontory is to utilize the 3rd floor of the southern part of the complex as a ground floor for Upper Hrádek. With minor construction modifications, we can also ground the northern factory building. This approach leads to the creation of one large whole. This is contextually significant in relation to the local phenomenon of large textile objects, not only in place but also in broader relationships.

Design
The promontory is an opportunity to set down significant urban functions, similar to a jewel on a tray. This can be achieved with a structure corresponding to the dimensions of inhalations and exhalations of the upper center and the grounding of the 3rd above-ground floor of the factory buildings. The descending terrain can also be utilized for ground usage in the lower floors. This will sustainably develop the genius loci of Hrádek nad Nisou.

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Martin Stupka - House at the Lime Tree
3rd Year, Atelier Mjölk

A narrow translucent house with cheerful residents. The facade is made of translucent polycarbonate, allowing for peeking.
Utilization of the maximum possible buildability of the plot. The basic principle is to create a narrow courtyard that will remain even if the adjacent plot is developed. 6 apartments, 12 residents, studio, café, club room.
Large terrace. Community. Comfort.

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Jiří Lukáš - Center of Jablonné v Podještědí
Master's Thesis in the studio Buček/Horatschke

The goal of the Master's thesis was to define critical points and cornerstones and develop their possible solutions. Part of the work includes the design of the main square of the city, the space in front of the Basilica of St. Lawrence, and the processing of the wall space. The work also addresses the former Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary and its conversion into a library. The design utilizes the potential of the city and helps its regeneration with a real solution.

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Eliška Kováříková - Conversion of a Lighthouse into a Hotel in Syracuse, Italy
4th Year, Atelier Hendrych/Janďourek

ASSIGNMENT
The assignment is a conversion and extension of a lighthouse complex on the cliff of Murro di Porco near the Sicilian city of Syracuse into a hotel facility. The design aims to support the uniqueness of the place, its natural qualities, while also respecting the lighthouse itself. Part of the work is also specifying the character of the hotel.

PROGRAM
The hotel is a place for specific residents who appreciate the tranquility and emptiness of the environment. It attracts people who want to rest, recharge, and focus on themselves. The solitude of the lighthouse and the meditative view of the cliffs and sea are ideal for this purpose. Based on this, I decided to design a hotel on the cliff, tailored for yoga practice. The house provides accommodation, meals, and mainly space for exercising and relaxation. There is no single permanent yogi teaching the newcomers. Instead, practitioners come with their own instructors. Most often, visitors are couples. Yoga classes are held two to three times a day. The rest of the day, visitors engage in relaxation, walking along the cliffs, or exploring the surroundings.

CONCEPT
The designed house is simultaneously a platform expanding the lighthouse. The house is embedded in the rock. It continues the landscape. It is freely passable, without doors, without barriers. In the central space, there is water and the sky above it. The surrounding walls of the atrium are bare, and there are no doors here. All entrances are hidden in side corridors. It is an intimate, calm space accented by the connection with the landscape.

OPERATION
The house is defined by the floor and ceiling. It contains 3 closed objects (houses within a house) - a yoga room and two accommodation units with communication. These objects delineate the central space, the atrium with three pools. Connected to the platform above is an object joined by two staircases – one single-armed with an accessible elevator and the other double-armed, spanning the entire building from the platform to the underground floor, which ensures the fire escape route. This staircase connects partially assumes the building’s basement. The underground floor contains utility rooms, laundry, and storage.
The building features 7 double rooms, of which 2 are accessible. The rooms are divided into an entrance hall, bathroom, and bedroom. The bedroom windows face the landscape. The entrance hall and bathroom are illuminated by a skylight.

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Šimon Marek - Gallery of Children's Illustrations by Otakar Božejovský – Kunst für Kinder
Bachelor's Thesis in the studio Suchánek/Janoš

Otakar Božejovský, former director and founder of the exile publishing house for children's literature Bohem Press based in Zurich, is the owner of a collection of five hundred original book illustrations. He is also the initiator for building a facility where the collection will be stored. Despite pressure to build in Prague, where another gallery would likely get lost among similar institutions, the decision was made to choose a peripheral location – the outer area of Boží Dar in the Ore Mountains, following the example of smaller museums in Switzerland or Japan. However, this deviates in both economic and architectural dimensions. A common point of these facilities is their location within agglomerations of two or more cities with populations in the hundreds of thousands, within an approximately ten to twenty-kilometer reach. The Božídarská area must, if we do not wish to build a gallery that attracts visitors by itself, primarily target clientele that already exists due to extensive ski resorts, creating a space that is characteristic and speaks to both art lovers and people who do not regularly visit galleries.
The parcel consists of a vast meadow on sloping terrain, with its nearest point approximately three hundred meters from the last house that is part of a more solid urban structure, meaning in view from the village square with the church. One of the key points of the aforementioned museums is their placement in completely unbuilt landscapes and thus poetic isolation. In the case of Boží Dar, progress through the situation towards the furthest corner of the designated plot cannot achieve such isolation. A gallery that is part of the built environment is a significant urban-forming element, and a gallery in the landscape is a significant element, a kind of mound symbolizing purity and tranquility. In this respect, the location on the edge of a poorly accessible town with two hundred and fifty inhabitants appears altogether unconvincingly. We are dealing with a plot that has no connection to the town and even less to the open countryside.
The town in the valley causes a relative enclosure of the built environment between the surrounding hills, the ridges of which define a clear and visible horizon. A band of meadows below the horizon, leading into the valley, then functions as a canvas, guiding the work with the image, which is the view from the town toward the countryside. The grouping of buildings becomes, like the illustrations in a book, a complementary element in the village panorama.
The object consists of four buildings – an exhibition hall with associated services, a private residence for the owner of the collection, a pavilion with a children's playground, and a rental studio apartment for artists. They are placed in an orthogonal composition, as a purely unnatural, rigid element. In the landscape, they are meant to appear inappropriate, even extraterrestrial. They are interconnected by an informal, stone-paved path in the grass. Visitors approach the grouping via a gravel path from the village square. In front stands the gallery object. To the left of the panorama lies Otakar Božejovský's residence, his private office where he overlooks his estate. To the right of the gallery is an apartment serving as a rentable studio apartment or accommodation for visiting artists, and at the highest part is the pavilion, an open outdoor playground, and an airy climbing structure.
"The architecture of the gallery should benevolently gaze upon the exhibited works.” *
Separate spatial art often places spatial demands on the layout and the neutrality of the surroundings, thus it is undesirable for it to be disturbed by overly specific whims of the architect. Illustration, in this respect, allows for a different approach and therefore relates to a different than usual gallery typology. The design is aimed in a way that is minimally in conflict with Lehmbruck's definition and profiles itself as: the house as an interpretation of the collection
The collection is finite, symbolizing a closed chapter of the publishing house's life. The format of the building corresponds to the assumption of extreme conditions for displaying and observing works, where the exhibition encompasses the complete collection of five hundred illustrations in 280 minimum rooms. The gallery object is an architectural expression of the complete collection of children's illustrations.
After the removal of dividing walls, an open exhibition hall remains, structured by a dense array of columns, which becomes characteristic for the gallery of illustrations. It determines the format of the exhibited works (the only common point for all pieces is the size not exceeding around 50x50 cm). At the same time, it is some sort of manual hinting at how to further work with and subdivide the space. The characteristics of the place partially yield to curatorial difficulties.
Illustrations appearing in publications for both children and adults, regardless of the quality of execution, are always to some extent tied to a story. Although the artistic accompaniment can be assessed technically after being extracted from the context of the book, it cannot be categorized as autonomous art, precisely because of its connection to the literary content. In other words, illustrated publications can only be assessed as wholes. The absence of a story, however, can enrich a standalone illustration with an entirely new dimension, that of creating its own context and thus new effects on the content of the artwork. Just as the proximity of a seemingly unrelated image can alter the narrative line, a specific spatial change can alter the perception of a particular illustration. The internal arrangement of the exhibition hall responds to this with a special variability of the layout, the solution of which is the curator's response.