Young architects criticize the industry association and want to change it

Prague - A group of young creators is trying to change the current situation in the Association of Architects, a civic association that should primarily promote quality architecture. According to them, the Association is failing in its mission, the prestige of the activities it supports is declining, and its leadership communicates too little with the outside world.
    "We want to attempt to reform the Association of Architects; it seems more useful to us than creating new platforms and new industry awards," architect Vít Podráský, one of the initiators of the Call for Reform of the Association of Architects, told ČTK. According to Podráský, one can join by entering the association and subsequently participating in the general meeting on December 5. Representatives of the association do not wish to comment on the call. Member of the Council of the Association of Architects Jan Melichar told ČTK only that the signatories of the call joined the association only after publishing their text, thus, in his opinion, they criticize something they do not know.
    The text published on the website states that the Association of Architects is "too closed off to itself and does not reflect current events in the Czech architectural scene." The authors of the call are particularly bothered by the fact that "established presentation tools it manages are also declining - the Grand Prix exhibition and the magazine Architekt." The former is becoming an event with a negligible impact on the non-architectural public, while the latter is a presentation publication without relevant critical reviews, the authors believe.
    They do not want to create parallel activities; Podráský cites the case of Slovakia, where today there are three major architectural awards, none of which, according to him, have the appropriate prestige. "We are mostly relatively recent graduates of architecture schools, so we are trying to gain support from prominent personalities across the field," says Podráský. Among them are Jaroslav Wertig, Petr Lešek, Jan Šépka, Alena Šrámková, Josef Pleskot, and Ladislav Lábus.
    However, the authors of the call are also directing their appeal to existing members of the Association of Architects who are dissatisfied with its state. "The future of our profession is at stake. The lay public today finds it hard to understand the purpose of an architect's work, perceiving it as an aesthetic making construction more expensive. Quality architecture should become a public and comprehensible matter," the authors state.
    The Association of Architects was established in 1990 by transforming the Union of Architects as a non-governmental non-profit organization; it built on the tradition of architects' clubs from the First Republic. At the first meeting of the association, the idea arose to build a chamber of architects as a professional organization, which was established in 1993 and subsequently joined by the majority of practicing architects. As a result, the Association became marginalized in their interests.