The responsibility for the independence of the competition organizer primarily rests with the judges themselves
Expression of ČKA regarding the report of the Control Committee of the Prague-Zbraslav district
In December of last year, the results of the competition for the urban design proposal of the Sluneční město locality in Zbraslav were announced, aimed at finding a vision for the area's development by 2010/2040. The Control Committee of the Prague-Zbraslav District published a report on February 2, 2010, regarding the course and regularity of this competition and questioned some steps, particularly the selection of the competition manager and secretary, the composition of the jury, the minutes from the building committee, etc.
> You can find the minutes from the meeting of the Control Committee on January 20, 2010 here> (.pdf, 580 KB), issues of the competition's regularity are discussed on pages 8-10.
The Czech Chamber of Architects has not yet been officially invited to comment on the February report of the Control Committee; however, it can already state that the approval of the competition conditions and the issuance of the regularity certificate proceeded in a standard manner.
As early as August 2009, the Control Committee had doubts regarding the independence of the jurors from the promoter and feared that the course and results of the competition would be challenged. Thus, on August 27, 2009, it requested a statement regarding the independence of the jurors from the Czech Chamber of Architects (ČKA). The Chamber recommended that the Control Committee contact independent jurors to ascertain their relationship with the competition promoter, discuss the entire matter with them, and ensure their independence. The ČKA was not informed whether the committee acted accordingly or not.
It should be noted that each competition promoter assembles their own jury; the ČKA can, at the explicit request of the promoter, recommend a list of trained jurors. The ČKA does not assess and cannot assess the independence of jurors, as it does not have complete information about all activities of individual authorized architects. This responsibility is left to the jurors themselves.
At the first meeting of the jury held after the submission deadline for design proposals, the president will request from all jury members and auxiliary bodies a declaration that they will perform their function impartially, that they have not directly or indirectly participated in the work on the submitted design proposals and that they do not know the names of the authors of the submitted proposals in public and combined competitions. In the case of independent jury members, the declaration is also supplemented with a guarantee of their independence from the promoter. This means that anyone in an employment or equivalent relationship with the promoter, or whose position allows them to decide on the matter that was the subject of the competition within future administrative proceedings, is considered dependent.
The Control Committee of the Prague-Zbraslav District considered architects Ivan Vavřík and Petr Hájek to be dependent jury members, as they had long collaborated with this district and were members of the building and advisory committees. According to the statement of Mgr. Karel Tejkal from the Control Committee, this constitutes a violation of § 8 paragraph 4 of the ČKA Competition Rules, which stipulates that a majority of the jury members must be independent of the promoter.
The ČKA is increasingly encountering similar cases of disputed dependency or independence of jurors on the competition promoter. Therefore, it is considering improving the system for assessing the composition of juries and the dependency or independence of members; however, the personal responsibility of individual jurors will still be considered a given.
> You can find the minutes from the meeting of the Control Committee on January 20, 2010 here> (.pdf, 580 KB), issues of the competition's regularity are discussed on pages 8-10.
The Czech Chamber of Architects has not yet been officially invited to comment on the February report of the Control Committee; however, it can already state that the approval of the competition conditions and the issuance of the regularity certificate proceeded in a standard manner.
As early as August 2009, the Control Committee had doubts regarding the independence of the jurors from the promoter and feared that the course and results of the competition would be challenged. Thus, on August 27, 2009, it requested a statement regarding the independence of the jurors from the Czech Chamber of Architects (ČKA). The Chamber recommended that the Control Committee contact independent jurors to ascertain their relationship with the competition promoter, discuss the entire matter with them, and ensure their independence. The ČKA was not informed whether the committee acted accordingly or not.
It should be noted that each competition promoter assembles their own jury; the ČKA can, at the explicit request of the promoter, recommend a list of trained jurors. The ČKA does not assess and cannot assess the independence of jurors, as it does not have complete information about all activities of individual authorized architects. This responsibility is left to the jurors themselves.
At the first meeting of the jury held after the submission deadline for design proposals, the president will request from all jury members and auxiliary bodies a declaration that they will perform their function impartially, that they have not directly or indirectly participated in the work on the submitted design proposals and that they do not know the names of the authors of the submitted proposals in public and combined competitions. In the case of independent jury members, the declaration is also supplemented with a guarantee of their independence from the promoter. This means that anyone in an employment or equivalent relationship with the promoter, or whose position allows them to decide on the matter that was the subject of the competition within future administrative proceedings, is considered dependent.
The Control Committee of the Prague-Zbraslav District considered architects Ivan Vavřík and Petr Hájek to be dependent jury members, as they had long collaborated with this district and were members of the building and advisory committees. According to the statement of Mgr. Karel Tejkal from the Control Committee, this constitutes a violation of § 8 paragraph 4 of the ČKA Competition Rules, which stipulates that a majority of the jury members must be independent of the promoter.
The ČKA is increasingly encountering similar cases of disputed dependency or independence of jurors on the competition promoter. Therefore, it is considering improving the system for assessing the composition of juries and the dependency or independence of members; however, the personal responsibility of individual jurors will still be considered a given.
Markéta Pražanová
spokesperson for the Czech Chamber of Architects
In Prague, February 8, 2010
spokesperson for the Czech Chamber of Architects
In Prague, February 8, 2010
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