2nd year of the Active House Award competition for university students

The Active House Award competition is designated for university students focused on construction in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia and is announced in two categories – new constructions and renovations. Projects may be submitted by individuals or collectives. The goal of the competition is to support students' work on sustainable building projects and through this, provide a more detailed understanding of building design issues in the active standard. The active standard is defined by the quality of the indoor environment, consideration for the environment, and the energy efficiency of the building. The main value of the building is represented by the way in which the mutual integration of these aspects supports architectural quality, human health, and a pleasant living environment.

Projects of active houses for housing, administration, and small civic amenities (family houses, apartment buildings, office buildings, and for example, kindergartens) may be submitted for the competition. A condition for participation in the competition is that the house is designed in the active standard, where daylight and fresh air enter the building through the roof.

The submitted competition entries will be evaluated by an international expert jury consisting of:

Independents:
• Mag. Arch. Juri Troy (Juri Troy Architects, Austria)
• Ing. Ondřej Hofmeister (Projektil architekti s. r. o., Czech Republic)
• Ing. arch. Martin Jančok (P-L-U-R-A-L, Slovakia)

Dependents:
• MA Lone Feifer (VELUX AS, Denmark)
• Ing. arch. Klára Bukolská (representative of the organizer, VELUX Czech Republic)

Jury expert and representative of the Active House Alliance:
• Gunther Zsolt (3h architecture, Hungary)

Substitute and jury expert:
• doc. Ing. Jiří Hirš, CSc. (Vice Dean of FAST VUT Brno)

Verification of data accuracy in the Active House Radar
Jury expert: Ing. Martin Vonka, Ph. D. (Czech Technical University in Prague, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Czech Republic)

Winners of the previous year on a tour in Green Lighthouse, Copenhagen

The evaluation will focus on the quality of the building's indoor environment from the perspective of the usability of the layout, the amount of daylight in the interior, and the provision of ventilation; the impact on the environment from the perspective of architectural processing, urban planning, used materials, and the use of renewable resources. The third criterion will be energy efficiency.

Winning in each category represents a reward of 45,000 CZK / 1,800 € + a 2-day excursion to Copenhagen, Denmark*. Furthermore, a sum of 60,000 CZK / 2,400 € will be distributed among the awarded projects.
Registration for the Active House Award competition ends on 1 May 2013, and the deadline for submitting competition proposals is by 15 May 2013. The official announcement of the winners will take place on 29 May 2013 at the Jaroslav Fragner Gallery in Prague during the opening of the exhibition of all competition proposals. More information about the competition, including detailed conditions and application forms, is available on the website or on Facebook.