Lead Dušan 2017 - ceremonial announcement

The Student Association of architecture students at the Faculty of Architecture CTU presented the twenty-fourth edition of the Lead Dušan, now a cult competition for the best student projects and studios. The Lead Dušan awards were presented by an independent jury composed of leading Czech architects and designers, as is customary.
The competition is announced in the winter semester and takes place in both fields of study at the FA CTU – architecture and design - in two categories – best projects and best studios as a whole. Every regular student of FA CTU who submits and exhibits a studio project in the given semester, including team projects, automatically participates in the competition. Diploma projects, projects within the scope of the ZAN subjects, and projects from SPA members who are present during the project evaluation by the jury are excluded from the competition. The competition is conducted in four rounds.
The evaluation also took place this year in two categories, architecture and design. In the first category, the jury consisted of Jan Šépka, founder of the Šépka architects office, head of studio A1 and associate professor at UMPRUM, Lenka Míková, founder of Collaborative Collective, Lukáš Brom from The Builders studio, Matěj Draslar, a lecturer at ETH Zurich, and last but not least, Pavel Buryška, founder of the XTOPIX studio.
The second category was evaluated by a three-member jury consisting of Jan Činčera, founder of the packaging studio Studio Činčera and chairman of the international Young Package competition, Ondřej Krynek, founder of DesignMag.cz and organizer of Prague Design Week, and Šimon Brabec from Braasi Industry.
The gala evening, which included the ceremonial announcement of the results of the Lead Dušan 2017, took place on March 23, 2017, at the Studio Hrdinů in the Veletržní palác in Prague. The nominations and awards for projects and studios were announced here. The evening was hosted by students Anna Vácová and Alžběta Widholmová.
In the design category, the jury unconsciously continues the tradition of hesitation over the selection of the winner. This time, they explored the first-year projects, resulting not only in two nominations but also in two winners. In the project category, it is Barbora Lexová, who excelled in both the presentation and the model, specifically the prototype of the dustpan and brush. That was also the assignment for half of the studio of Jaroš & Doucet, whose quality the jury also appreciated by winning for its wide expression possibilities for newly incoming students. As the jury members themselves say: “thanks to a good assignment, a lot can be recognized right at the beginning.”
In the architecture category, the jury decided to more vocally demonstrate feelings that often recur across the Dušan generations, namely the polarization of the quality of architectural studios at the school. They awarded jury prizes to five studios - Císler & Pazdera with the assignment Bridge-City, Kuzemenský & Synek with the assignment Mixed use Na knížecí, Kraus & Čančík - Not just housing for Úvaly, the studio Novotný & Koňata & Zmek dealt with the competition for the Faculty of Architecture in Dresden, and Redčenkov & Danda handled interventions in Františkovy Lázně. With the view that the school's quality is determined by its weakest link, the system of top evaluation is questioned. Similarly for the projects - the jury prize goes to Tomáš Gelien for Mixed-use in the studio Kuzemenský & Synek, the trio David Lašek, Miroslav Styk, Martin Želiar for the Bridge between and Residential building in the studio Císler & Pazdera, Jiří Neuvirt with the design of the Spa Square in the studio Redčenkov & Danda, and David Poloch for Housing for Úvaly from the studio Kraus & Čančík. “They are equally good and incomparable.”
The exhibition of the nominated and winning projects can be seen at NTK from March 24 to April 18, 2017, where a public discussion with representatives of the management, studio leaders, and students of FA on the topics that Dušan opens will take place simultaneously with the end of the exhibition.
The student competition Lead Dušan 2017 is summarized and presented in a published catalog, which visitors of the gala evening could take home. The catalog is also available in office 441 of the Architecture Students Association in the premises of the Faculty of Architecture CTU.

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