Architecture school must entertain students, says new FA dean

The architect and current head of the Department of Architectural Design II has experience from architectural practice and from many years of working in the academic environment. He represents the Faculty of Architecture on the governing board of the European Association for Architectural Education (EAAE), which focuses on improving the quality of architectural education in Europe, and led the CTU Solar Decathlon team, which was a great success and international visibility for the Faculty of Architecture and CTU.

"I view my election as dean with humbleness and at the same time as a great challenge. The Faculty of Architecture of CTU is the largest school of architecture in the Czech Republic. It has the greatest responsibility for forming the future shape of our professions. Its current form is the result of tradition and many years of development, and especially the period after 2006, when a major reorganisation took place. We are now at a moment when it is time to capitalise on the experience of the previous years and give the school a new impetus. And I am looking forward to this process," said Dalibor Hlaváček, who took up his appointment as dean on 1 February. He replaced Professor Ladislav Lábus, who had led the faculty for two terms since 2014.

Dalibor Hlaváček emphasizes that he has taken over a well-established institution that is in good shape and does not have to deal with any acute problems thanks to two previous deans, a team of department heads, the teaching staff and excellent students. But at the same time, he wants to push the school towards new challenges.

He highlights the exceptional curriculum of the three degree programmes – Architecture and Urbanism, Landscape Architecture and Design - offered by the faculty. Dalibor Hlaváček wants to make the most of the potential of three disciplines in "one house". The interdisciplinarity should be reflected in the curriculum, which should be simpler and the theoretical subjects more intertwined with studio teaching.

Another area the new dean plans to emphasize is sustainable design. "Europe is set to become the first climate-neutral continent. Part of the strategy is the New European Bauhaus initiative, which focuses on linking design, sustainability, accessibility, affordability and investment. As the largest architecture school, the Faculty of Architecture needs to be much more responsive to this theme. It should permeate not only the content of teaching and research, but should be reflected in the entire life of the faculty", he presents his strategy.

There are more plans to open the Faculty of Architecture abroad. It wants to systematically support visiting lecturers and studios led by foreign professors, to strive for the placement of FA CTU in the QS World University Rankings and to work on the validation of the Royal Institute of British Architects RIBA.

In the coming weeks, the new dean of the FA CTU sees a great challenge in the faculty's return to life after the pandemic. He also wants to focus on the internal environment of the faculty to be more open, inclusive and supportive. "At the moment, I am putting together a team that will be tasked with preparing a gender audit and a plan for its implementation or preparing an ombudsman/ ombudswoman institute. This topic is resonating more and more at Czech universities, and it is also being discussed at the CTU. We want to set an example."

Doc. Ing. arch. Dalibor Hlaváček, Ph.D. is an authorized architect and teacher at the Faculty of Architecture of the CTU, where he graduated and was appointed associate professor. Between 2001–2002 he worked at the Renzo Piano Building Workshop in Genoa, in 2005–2008 at the studio Hlaváček and partner (now Hlaváček architekti), in 2008 he founded his own architectural office. In 2011–2013 he led the CTU Solar Decathlon team. He is a board member of the European Association for Architectural Education (EAAE), he is a guarantor of the ecology course at the Faculty of Architecture of the CTU, he leads the Hlaváček–Čeněk studio and since 2018 he has been managing the Department of Architectural Design II. He is the author and co-author of many award-winning projects and buildings.