Students designed the new CTU exhibition stand for trade fairs

The existing CTU exhibition space, which the university presents itself to potential students during educational fairs, is slowly retiring. Therefore, students of our faculty initiated a competition workshop for all university students for a new stand design. The resulting proposals will be presented to the university management, who will decide whether they will inspire the creation of a new exhibition in the future. A total of 15 students from the Faculty of Architecture and the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Czech Technical University in Prague participated in the workshop.

During the three-day workshop, students attended thematic lectures by Lenka Bednářová and Vladimír Soukenka, continually consulted their ideas with the workshop organizers and then presented their final works to a graphcic artist Alena Hyblerová, architect Vojtěch Hybler, designer Marian Karel and stage designer Vladimír Soukenka.  The jury awarded the three best designs of the nine created.

The jury pointed out that the contestants were given a complex task at the interface of architecture, marketing, exhibition and new media, and appreciated their courage to deal with it in such a short time. The winning designs appreciated the ability to work with this overlap. The jury was looking for solutions that would change the current paradigm of exhibiting at trade fair events.

The team of Emma Závodská (FA ČVUT) and Daniela Čečková (FSv ČVUT) won, they came up with a bold approach to change the present system of school presentation working with the sites of individual faculties. Their innovative project abolishes the site and wants to use the work of our students instead.

The basic element is an application that could be the result of the work of our students and a presentation of what the school can offer to those interested in studying. The application uses augmented reality (AR), which is focused on by students of FA (Design program), FIT and FEE CTU. The prospective candidates can search in the app, for additional information on screening at the booth, save it for later use, subscribe to the newsletter, ask faculty questions, get alerts for important dates, invitations to events, apply or try fun face filters focused on professions in which you can work after studying at CTU.

The winning design features two constructions. The first structure consists of circular arches coated with light fabric. Visitors can freely navigate through the stand area and retrieve additional information, images, or videos using an app installed on their mobile devices. It will be possible to sit in the furnishings around a rectangular floor plan. The second construction is used for projectors. The whole stand is suspended from the ceiling of the exhibition center and anchored in the landing.

The jury sees in the proposal the potential of inter-faculty cooperation in the development of the project. They specifically mentioned the Faculty of Information Technology, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and the Faculty of Architecture - design. The jury appreciated mainly the principle and possibility of operation outside the fair days and the high potential of the application to expand among high school students. The jury also liked the concept of distinguishing CTU representatives using unmistakable blue morphs, who would be able to disseminate information using the mobile app and augmented reality.

The second prize went to three students from the Faculty of Architecture, Erik Sovet, Maxim Petricov and Daria Vlasová, who designed a stunning mirror sphere. It works as an effective and unmistakable eye-catcher, as well as a scenographic element that attracts visitors and an interactive experience inside the university booth. This team attracted the jury mainly thanks to a strong concept and convincing visualisations, from which it was very readable to distinguish the proposed exposition of CTU from other exhibitors. The jury liked the free access to the parterre, the dynamic presentation of the university, the work with distorted images and the possibility of sharing experiential selfies on social networks. Students solved the stand very well not only from the functional, but also from the construction perspective.

The third place went to Petr Moschner, also from our faculty, with his project Amphitheater as a place for dialogue. The jury was impressed by the concept of the stall as a magnificent staircase that attracts attention as it flows through the mass of visitors, encourages stopping and also functions as a generous space for rest. The jury recommended to lighten the closed mass of the staircase with a permeable frame structure and to simplify the design in the spirit of the designed layout for Bratislava, where the student designed only one tower and dominant staircase. The jury finds high potential in finalizing the design of the project.