Changes at the Department of Theory and History of Architecture

Already during the summer semester 2021, the architectural historian professor Petr Vorlík won the competition for the head of the department. The new deputy head became art and architecture historian professor Pavel Kalina. Neither of them is new to the department and they are connected with the FA environment by many years of research and teaching activities. The changes in the teaching and staffing of the department reflect the overall strategy of the FA CTU promoted by Dean Dalibor Hlaváček. As Petr Vorlík notes: "Our goal is to bring interdisciplinarity and a broader perception of architecture to the faculty through the variety of subjects and the diversity of lecturers". The department has succeeded in doing this through the involvement of external lecturers and, to a greater extent, its own doctoral students, who have become an essential support in teaching. The recent unification of the titles of the courses provided also contributes to the coherence of the subjects and the understanding of the meaning of teaching.

For the course Philosophy, Sociology and Psychology I, we managed to arrange cooperation with sociologist Tomáš Hoření-Samec from the Institute of Sociology of the CAS, who focuses on the topic of urbanism and housing.

The follow-up courses Philosophy, Sociology and Psychology II, III and IV are taught by a new member of the department, the philosopher of the city/urbanism Vladan Klement.

Jana Tichá, a member of the department and theoretician of architecture, took over the course History and Theory of Architecture VII as a guarantor and teacher in one person.   

Jiří Tourek from the Faculty of Humanities of Charles University will teach the follow-up course History and Theory of Architecture VIII in the winter semester.

The most visible strengthening of the intent of diversity has occurred in the History and Theory of Architecture V course, which now offers students virtually unlimited opportunities to choose a term paper topic in collaboration with a range of faculty, researchers, and virtually all of the department's doctoral students.

The Department of Theory and History of Architecture provides teaching not only in the architecture and urbanism programme, but also in landscape architecture and design. Therefore, the design course Culturology was newly taken over by a member of the department, architectural historian and cultural studies Miroslav Pavel. The English version of Design Theory was taken over by Klára Ullmannová, a doctoral student and art historian. 

Miroslav Pavel is responsible for public relations at the Department of Theory and History of Architecture.