Nominate Architect of the Year 2020

Until June 30th, individuals can be nominated for the Architect of the Year competition. The award is given annually to a significant creator who has, in the past five years, significantly contributed to architecture in the Czech Republic through their innovative approach, whether through outstanding architectural work or by supporting quality architecture.

The Architect of the Year award aims to highlight the significance and importance of architecture and built environments for our lives and the cultural development of society, as well as the crucial role of architects in influencing the quality of buildings. At the same time, the goal of the award is to spread awareness and promote quality architecture, says Pavel Sehnal, chairman of the board of ABF, a.s., which organizes the award.
The recognition is not only intended for practicing architects but also for anyone whose actions strive for the emergence of quality architecture, its promotion, and support. Therefore, in the past, awardees have included, for example, artist Kateřina Šedá, who experiments in public space, or architecture popularizers Adam Gebrian and Marcela Steinbachová. Last year's laureate was, however, one of the most prominent architects in the Czech scene, Stanislav Fiala.
For the Architect of the Year award, initiators of exceptional creative undertakings, building designers, theorists, journalists, and other personalities who have contributed to supporting quality and shown engagement in architecture can be nominated. The nominations will be evaluated by a professional jury composed of laureates from previous years and other significant personalities (architects Stanislav Fiala, Adam Gebrian, Petr Hájek, Marcela Steinbachová, and artist Kateřina Šedá), who will select 3-5 finalists from which the winner will be announced at a ceremonial event on September 8, 2020, at the Center for Architecture and City Planning (CAMP) in Prague. The jury strives for a comprehensive assessment of the contributions made by the nominated individuals, whether from the perspective of protecting public interests and societal development, professional and moral integrity, influence on the emergence of quality buildings or public spaces and landscapes, professional level of work, or the use of innovative solutions, etc.
An integral part of the Architect of the Year organized by ABF, a.s., is the special award Architect to the Community, which seeks to draw attention to the importance of cooperation and mutual symbiosis between the architect and local government in community development. Municipalities and cities, along with architects or their studios from across the Czech Republic, can enter the Architect to the Community competition with projects related to urbanism, spatial planning, landscape design, and public space, as well as the realization of buildings and other undertakings that impact the quality of life and cultural development of residents and society as a whole. The award is granted to the architect and the municipality, meaning the collaborating tandem that has systematically and continuously dedicated itself to the conception of the built environment of the community over recent years, thereby significantly contributing to quality architecture and sustainable development of that municipality.
The Architect to the Community competition also supports the role of city architects and hence directly connects to one of the goals of the Architecture and Building Culture Policy of the Czech Republic, which is to strengthen the role of city and municipal architects. Last year's award recipient in the competition was architect and urban planner Milan Košař, honored for his long-term professional performance as a city architect.
The nominations for the Architect to the Community award 2020 will be evaluated by a professional jury (Radka Vladyková, Union of Towns and Municipalities of the Czech Republic, Josef Morkus, Ministry for Regional Development of the Czech Republic, Petr Velička, Czech Chamber of Architects, Petr Durdík, Association for Urbanism and Spatial Planning of the Czech Republic, Milan Košař, holder of the Architect to the Community award 2019, Ivan Ryšavý, magazine Moderní obec, and a representative of ABF, a.s.). The ceremonial event for the presentation of the award to the winner of the Architect to the Community 2020 competition will also take place on September 8, 2020, at the Center for Architecture and City Planning (CAMP) in Prague.

Composition of the Jury - Architect of the Year 2020
Stanislav Fiala has been among the top Czech architects since the 1990s. Many of his realizations have received awards not only here but also abroad. In 2000, he became a finalist for the prestigious European award for contemporary architecture, the Mies van der Rohe Award, with the administrative building MUZO in Prague's Strašnice. Some of the most significant realizations in recent years include the Špork Palace in Prague, the DRN Palace on Národní Street in Prague, and the Golf Club Čertovo břemeno in Aleniná Lhota, his buildings for the company SIPRAL – factory, headquarters, and showroom are also distinctive. He studied at the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University and the School of Architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. In the 1990s, he was a partner in the renowned D.A. Studio, later in the D3A studio, and since 2009 he has been the managing director of Fiala+Nemec.
Adam Gebrian graduated in 2006 from the Faculty of Art and Architecture at the Technical University in Liberec (where he also taught) and, thanks to a Fulbright scholarship, completed a postgraduate SCIFI program 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 acts as an independent journalist, 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 program Gebrian vs. on Stream.cz, and since 2009 has been moderating his own show "Demo" on Radio Wave, for which he received the Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Czech Architecture Award 2017, on mall.tv he moderates the shows Surprising Buildings and Gebrian: PLUS/MINUS. He has curated numerous exhibitions and was involved in founding the first private school of architecture in the Czech Republic - ARCHIP. Since 2013, he has been teaching at the Prague Institute.
Petr Hájek 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 Architekti, now HXH (where he is still managing director), and in 2009 he started his own architectural office Petr Hájek Architekti, s.r.o. Since 2004, he has been a faculty member at the FA of the Czech Technical University, where he was appointed associate professor (2010) and professor (2017). He is the founder and chairman of the board of the Art-Now Foundation, which supports art and talent, and he established the Laboratory of Experimental Architecture (LEA). For his research project Anastomosis, he received the Rector's Award of the Czech Technical University in 2012 for the application of research in practice. The writer Miloš Urban was inspired to write the novel Urbo Kune (2015), which takes place in a utopian city designed by students of his studio at the FA of the Czech Technical University.
Marcela Steinbachová graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague in 2003 (School of Architecture of Emil Přikryl), where she also completed her doctoral studies. Before that, she studied at the UMPRUM (field of architecture) and at the Institute of Humanities at Charles University. In 2001, she founded the Kruh project, which organizes lectures on architecture (summarized in the publication Texty o architektuře, of which she is the editor). From 2007, she worked as an assistant professor at the AVU architecture school and in the same year founded the architectural association Skupina. She has received several awards for architecture, including Architect of the Year 2016 and the Prize for Exceptional Achievement from the Czech Architecture Awards 2017. She supports education in architecture (e.g., the exhibition Rooms - Possibilities of Space, children's architecture programs Kruh+), co-organizes Architecture Day, collaborated on the catalog Profession Architect, is the dramaturge of the Film and Architecture festival, a member of the editorial board of the magazine ERA 21, and a curator of the Czech Architecture Yearbook 2016-2017.
Kateřina Šedá graduated from the AVU in Prague in 2005. The Czech visual artist, whose work is closely related to social architecture, is the author of many socially conceived projects realized in the Czech Republic and abroad. This year, she became the author of a project for the 16th International Architecture Biennale in Venice. She has been invited to create independent projects by, for example, IHME in Helsinki, SFMOMA in San Francisco, and Tate Modern in London. Her work has received several awards, including the Jindřich Chalupecký Award, the Magnesia Litera for journalism, the title of Most Beautiful Czech Books of the Year, and foreign awards such as the Contemporary Art Society Award, Fluxus Award, etc. She has organized dozens of exhibitions and published over thirty publications that detail individual projects. She lectures about them at schools, in galleries, and even in smaller towns, where she strives to bring her activities closer to the widest audience possible, thereby provoking them to their own activity.

Architect of the Year - Previous Laureates
2019 Stanislav Fiala (Palace DRN and Palace Špork)
/ Honorary Recognition Jana Kostelecká (for long-term support and promotion of architecture)
/ Architect to the Community 2020 Milan Košař (city architect of Vysoké Mýto, Poděbrady, and Ústí nad Orlicí)
2018 Petr Hájek (extension of the DOX+ Center for Contemporary Art)
/ Honorary Recognition Dagmar Vernerová (Czech Architecture Yearbook)
2017 Kateřina Šedá (visual artist, for supporting social ties influenced by architecture)
/ Honorary Recognition Martin Kupka (mayor of Líbeznice)
2016 Marcela Steinbachová (architect, for promoting architecture)
/ Honorary Recognition Michal Škoda (curator of the House of Art in České Budějovice)
/ Architect to the Community Zdeňka Vydrová (architect, city architect of Litomyšl and Tišnov)
2015 Adam Gebrian (architect, for popularizing architecture)
/ Honorary Recognition Petr Volf (for journalism)
2014 Josef Pleskot (architect, Science and Technology Center in Ostrava)
2013 Antonín Novák (architect, National Center for Garden Culture in Kroměříž)

Submission of Nominations
Deadline for submissions for Architect of the Year 2020: June 30, 2020
Deadline for submissions for Architect to the Community 2020: June 30, 2020

More information >