Architectural Education - Jiří Suchomel

Prof. Ing. arch. Akad. arch. Jiří Suchomel (1944)
He studied at the Czech Technical University (ČVUT) and the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. In 1965, he interned at the Land Office in Donau-Urth. The following year, he worked at the studio of George, Trew and Dunn in London and in 1969 with architect Gottfried Böhm in Aachen. In the same year, he became a member of the SIAL School. He worked in the 02 studio of the Liberec Stavoprojekt. Since the founding of the Faculty of Architecture at the Technical University in Liberec (formerly VŠST) in 1994, he has served as its dean.

---

Two Architectures in One School: Duplication Across the Czech Republic

Jiří Suchomel: I think this problem is completely passé. Let's realize that we have already managed to create an environment where comparing architecture faculties with construction faculties is no longer a problem at all. We are in a European environment with structured higher education where any graduate from the bachelor's level has the option to choose any continuing field or master's studies, and thus can migrate between schools and countries. And the fact that we now have eight places in the Czech Republic that offer very different architecture programs and different perspectives on understanding architecture is incredibly liberating and it only benefits the matter.

Jiří Suchomel: Charles University has three medical faculties...

Jiří Suchomel: Higher education institutions tend to recruit more and more students. There are several reasons for this. One of them is political, as the European trend is to support the growth of education, which is also well-received at home. However, I believe that the main reason is very pragmatic - it's about obtaining more financial resources from the state budget. On the other hand, according to the rules of distribution in the population, it is clear that the current number of architecture students does not at all correspond to the number of individuals who can become architects or perform this activity. More important than the number of students and equal opportunity for every interested party is the level of education, and I fear that this is in direct contradiction to quantity.

How Many Architecture Schools Do We Need?

Jiří Suchomel: I do not know the exact numbers, but I think I am not mistaken in claiming that Italy has roughly the same number of inhabitants as Germany and they have at least two giant architecture schools: one in Milan and another in Venice. Each of them has around 20,000 students. This implies that every Italian first becomes an architect and then thinks about what they will actually do. This is certainly not an ideal state, but something like this exists even in such a developed part of Europe. We must choose between two attitudes: either we want to be very liberal and give everyone the opportunity to study, which the European Union proclaims and the Czech state is trying to imitate, or we will proceed restrictively. Personally, I believe that any education that a person goes through is a value they carry into life.

Craft or Creativity?

Jiří Suchomel: I believe so. I am convinced that it is right to allow schools the freedom to approach this issue in their own way.

Jiří Suchomel: Isn't it so that what colleague Vašourková complains about suits many architecture students? Do they all want the same thing? Should all schools want the same thing? Should schools strive to look the same way? Isn't it better to offer each person a path, a position, a way of thinking that suits them?

Like Teacher, Like Student?

Jiří Suchomel: Since I went through the same process in Liberec, I know very well what problems arise when establishing a new school. But the completely key problem has already been mentioned here by František Sedláček, when he criticized the low reputation of universities in this country. Everything else, especially the problem of finances, which prevents potential educators, i.e., architects from practice, from dedicating a significant part of their energy to educational activities with a clear conscience, stems from that. At the top schools mentioned here, it is completely different.

Educator and System

Jiří Suchomel: Perhaps not everyone in the audience knows that universities must have an accredited study program and their accreditation is based on the number of professors and associate professors. Assistant professors are completely irrelevant for this approval process, and thus all universities and faculties take care of and pamper their associate professors and professors, as this assortment is limited, and that is why they remain at the schools. Few of the younger ones find the energy to habilitate and subsequently go through the professorship process. This is also a great reproach to the younger, younger, and youngest generation.

Jiří Suchomel: Feedback takes place in terms of, let's say, the success of graduates in practice. Given the current state of our economy and construction, this success rate is 105%. There is still a shortage of architects in the job market, and each of them, whether good or bad, will find work. Perhaps a better measure could be the employment of graduates abroad. There, the sieve is much narrower, but even here, students from the Liberec school are successful, as about ten out of our fifty graduates work abroad.

Jiří Suchomel: The importance of the school lies primarily in the unique opportunity it offers to meet people who are interested in the field, and this in such a composition and in such numbers that something similar is hardly likely to occur later in life. The student should make full use of this, and then it no longer matters whether they graduate with a blue or red diploma.

Jiří Suchomel: By the way, when I talked about the circle of interesting people at school, I meant the students as well. I was very pleased to find that after five or six years of the school's existence in Liberec, some internal atmosphere has developed, where students confront each other across years and share experiences. I would say that such an internal communication and atmosphere contributes 50% to the successful educational process. We must realize that university studies are different from education at the primary or secondary school. At a university, it is assumed that one comes because they have an interest in a certain field and wants to study it. They want to study, not to be educated, so activity should in any case come from the student. And the educators are there to help them in their effort. There are students who imagine that when they enter school, they get onto some sort of slide, where they sit at the top and are then spit out into the desired paradise. Fortunately, not everyone thinks this way.

The Future

Jiří Suchomel: I think the prospects are quite good because they can't get any worse, so they must only get better.