The 9th annual Druhá kůže competition show featured a record number of nominations. Six of them take home awards

"The competition is exceptional in that it focuses on the complex quality of the projects, follows both the layout and the overall solution, while giving space to the youngest students," said the Dean of the Faculty, Prof. Ladislav Lábus, at the opening of the live broadcast of the winner's announcement on 25. 2. 2021. "Congratulations to all those who, in the predicament of distance learning, have been able to come to a project that is rated so highly by our committee. The results are surprising in terms of how mature they are, including the presentation of projects,"  the dean added, further recalling that participation in the competition prepares students for an environment in which they will spend their lives in, competing for contracts, for jobs, as well as trying to raise their profile and present their work. "The results show that we have skilled students and brilliant teachers," Professor Michal Kohout, the head of the Department of Building Theory, who accompanied the online transmission, said at the announcement.

Of the eight finalists, the jury of Ing. arch. Petr Bouřil (chairman of the jury), Ing. arch. Peter Lacko, Ing. arch. Matyáš Sedlák (for the independent part), Ing. arch. Šárka Sodomková and Ing. arch. Vítězslav Danda (for the dependent part), decided to award six projects. Same as last year, the jury did not award the first three places, but four prizes and two honorary awards. This was due to the different nature of the projects assignment, as well as the fact that none of the awards more significantly exceeded the others in quality. The panel commended the high level of project preparation, considering that it was the work of second-year students who did not yet have experience with studio projects and further that the projects were created in a distance-learning mode that could not provide full compensation for students working and teaching in studios directly in the college.

The following projects won the jury prize:

• Pod Slovany/Na Moráni by Romana Rétiová from studio Koucký, the jury appreciated the good work with the context of the site, the urban design of the property.
• Houseing Podbělohorská by David Šaffek from studio Kuzemenský, the jury liked the sophistication of the project and its residential character. The author has clearly done a lot of work
• Project Transitus by Lada Zapletalová from studio Lampa. In its assessment, the panel emphasised the admirable design of a large scale in the context of housing development.
• Residential Buildings Kreuzberg by a team including Vojtěch Janoš and Jan Johanides from studio Hlavacek-Čeněk. The jury was convinced by the composition of the court facade and its expression.

The jury gave honorary recognition to these projects:

• Searching for Garden City by Ondřej Fiedler from studio Kuzemenský, especially for the visibly large work devoted to exploring the residential environment, sovereign visual processing and creative disposition solutions.
• Jindřišská – Růžová by Daniel Krupka from studio Valouch-Stibral, among others, for mature architectural expression, good work with house proportions and sensitive urban design.

You can read (in Czech) the jury's final report here:

The live broadcast of the winner announcement can be found here.

And how teachers and students reacted to the awards?

Prof. Roman Koucký stressed out that a number of students had done an incredible amount of work and taken a big step in their professional lives. “Last year, the jury accused us of putting in too much complexity and burdening students unnecessarily, but it has been my experience that it is worth getting students into the real world on more difficult assignments,” he said of his student Romana Rétiová's award. Romana Rétiová added that, despite the difficult process of creating the project, the project finally came to fruition just before Christmas and she was able to complete it successfully.

​​​​Michal Kuzemenský reminded that it is great that there are vertical studios and younger ones learn from older ones to be bold. Student Ondřej Fiedler, from his studio, said in a thank-you speech that it had been a great and mostly rich and nourishing semester.

​​​​​​​​​Dalibor Hlaváček praised his two award-winning students Vojtěch Janoš and Jan Johanides for their cooperation in the team, as they had a difficult task and battled him with honor.

The award-winning designs, including all 44 nominations, can be seen at least until mid-March in the atrium of the Faculty of Architecture of the CTU in Prague, and for an unlimited period in the online gallery on the web in the Gallery/Competitions section. For the organization of the competition as well as the first ever live broadcast of the winner's announcement, it is necessary to thank the secretary of the competition, architect Jana Kubcová.