Results of the Young Architect Award 2012

"The Museum and school of flamenco brings potential to the derelict historical center of Jerez. It interprets the program in a contemporary language, which inherently refers to the architectural heritage of Andalusia. (Alcazar, patio, nooks). I create an inner world. I enclose it with a perimeter wall, which in the SE part completes the street structure. To the NW, I use the rising terrain. The wall is a contour, creating a square, an extroverted space with a view of the cathedral, an experience of dance with the backdrop of the city. I reveal and spatially compose the significant volumes of the rooms. I create nooks, shadows, drawing closer to the delicate urban structure of the city. I distinguish levels of dancers and visitors. I dedicate new gardens to Jerez's residents, tourists, and the annual flamenco festival. I work with visual contacts from urban scale to the relationship between visitor/dancer. I layer entries, gradate experiences. I glance in, enter behind the wall, pass between- I glimpse into the dance halls, gradually discovering the individual spaces of the SE gardens. The design highlights the vibrant world of flamenco, creating a stage for it."
The jury praised the creation of public space in the historical context and the solution of a large part of the historical core of the city, into which the author brings new value. The fact that the author chose a foreign environment increased the difficulty, which the jury also rated positively.

"The existing library in the former town hall building, right in the center of Litomyšl at Smetanovo náměstí, is in a very unsuitable technical and operational condition. I am relocating it to a new place, which I design according to its needs. The land with the houses at the southern tip of Smetanovo náměstí has been closed to the public for several decades, although it was not in the past. Utilizing this space, its passages through buildings and houses themselves for a construction intended for the public, is an opportunity to reconnect the square with Bělidly and the bus station. Making the plot and building accessible became a fundamental idea. Thus, the library is not just a destination but part of the daily journey to other goals. The draft retains the house of the former arms factory and the House U Medvěda, which I reconstruct, connect, and unify with a new building. The most important part of the library from the visitor's perspective is located in the new building encircling the atrium. The new is acknowledged, the old is preserved, everything visible thanks to the contrast between materials."
The jury was thrilled by the revitalization of the historical square with a new public space, communication, and urban furnishing replacing the unsuitable library. The design also architecturally intimately enhances the unique historical environment. Archiweb awarded the design for standing out from the other submitted works with its uniqueness and lightness in creating urban space.

"In the conceptual design, we started from the principle of striving to preserve as many of the existing elements as possible, even through their modifications to meet current needs and to add a certain freshness to the whole space. The facility is surrounded on its southern and eastern sides by a relatively large green area, part of which we will use for a new construction that allows smooth operation of cultural activities, while the other part will be preserved and utilized as a park. The renovated facility, along with its accompanying facilities and pavilion, will thus enrich the cultural offer of the area. This will create a new cultural center, which will serve as a venue for fairs, concerts, theatrical performances, exhibitions, or simply a pleasant place for social gatherings. CONCEPT: We formulated the project in several steps, starting with the church and ending with the outdoor space. During this process, we removed unnecessary items while adding new ones that are essential for the new use of the renovated space. "
Justification of the jury: The design sensitively tidies the space around the church and, by inserting new elements, creates interesting areas. We appreciate the effort for a wide range of uses of the entire complex and the creation of a cultural center.

"The former Baroque Paulan Monastery in Nová Paka stands on a hill alongside the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, forming a significant historical landmark of this town. The project focuses on cleaning the original valuable structures and the overall revitalization into a cultural and social center and a day care center for people with disabilities. The revitalization does not follow the traditional path of conservation but rather combines several significant interventions that open the closed monastery building to social life. The monastery receives a prominent plinth, within which the new entrance is placed, creating an acropolis at the courtyard level, which serves as a luxurious public space with a view of the town. The entire area is now clearly defined and delineated. The monastery building houses a café, a hall, an event hall, a gallery, doctor's offices, sheltered workshops, and accommodations and workshop spaces in the attic."

After the awards ceremony, the evening was filled with French chansons. And how did the chairman of the jury, Ing.arch. Ladislav Kuba, evaluate this year's edition?
The theme of this year's Young Architect Award competition was public space in a historical context. The reason for choosing this theme is both the emphasis placed by the issuing body and the jury on cultivating public space in general, as well as an emphasis on perceiving historical context as a starting point and inspiration for the own work of young architects. However, this certainly does not mean that we expected straightforward inspiration from historical models; on the contrary, the purpose of such a defined theme was to seek answers to the question of how new architecture can independently and contemporaneously respond to the historical environment. The submitted competition designs did not disappoint our expectations. All participants' works are driven by the effort for an authentic statement and a distinctive contemporary approach to newly proposed architecture. A problem the jury had to cope with was the varying scale of the addressed tasks - how to qualitatively compare a comprehensive and demanding urban solution of large scale with the intimate scale of a small construction based on detail? This question also led us to the highest award for a proposal that is comprehensive in its scope and elaboration. The minimal number of submitted realizations led the jury to decide not to award prizes in the realization category and to instead increase awards in the project category, which was strongly represented in terms of numbers.

You can view all the projects here.