Designblok is the largest contemporary design and fashion show in the Czech Republic, this year it was held at the Benedictine monastery Gabriel Loci and the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague from 5 to 9 October. The exhibited works by students of the Jaroš-Bednář studio are part of the extensive Bohemian Perfection project, which aims to make visible, revive and develop traditional folk crafts and their products with a direct link to the localities where they are created. The learners had the opportunity to meet the craftsmen and memorabilia makers and thus better understand the story behind the product.
"This is a great success for our institute, studio and the students involved. Along with the National Design Award, won by our student Vojtěch Veverka last year, it is the next highest award that can be won for our work in the Czech Republic. It is even more valuable that this year the jury was composed only of foreign journalists, foreign designers, without the participation of journalists from the Czech Republic or Slovakia," says MgA. Jan Jaroš from the Institute of Design, FA CTU.
Among the exhibited projects was, for example, a surf for powder snow by Petr Brancusky using the original technique of making ash wood skis. The author teamed up with Jasanka, a company that produces traditional wooden skis, and designed a surfboard with a construction of ash and cherry boards with non-slip oak pins. Other exhibits included a head ornament made of blown glass beads from the Podkrkonoší region by Roman Koubek, clothing models from Zuzana Šimůnková's original blueprint, and a cradle made of wicker, for which Tereza Horičková won the 2022 Olověný Dušan Award.
The Building of the Year is a Czech public national competition of buildings, organized since 1992 by the Foundation for the Development of Architecture and Construction. The investor, the town of Libčice nad Vltavou, entered three buildings into the competition and cooperated with Institute of Design II of FA CTU, which focuses on design-build projects in which students design and implement the building.
"The award was given to an exceptional project that innovates and introduces a modern concept of teaching architecture students in a very significant way. The students have the opportunity to learn about the entire construction process from study to implementation," said the jury of the 2022 Building of the Year Special Award.
Three perches - Bench, Silo and Chair - are excursion places in the acacia grove between Libčice nad Vltavou and Tursko. Their concept works with different geometric shapes, capacity and function. Each object is composed of three parts - a concrete base slab, a steel support structure with a ladder or staircase and a wooden viewing platform with a railing and a seating bench. Their height varies between three and five metres. All wooden elements are made of larch.
Most of the construction work was done by the students themselves with the assistance of professional craftsmen, they also cooperated with the Higher Vocational School and the Secondary School of Industry in Volyn. "We give our heart to the project. To build something is far beyond the normal scope of study, it is a passion for architecture and for Libčice," says the author of the concept, Tomáš Kodet, a student of the Master's programme at Faculty of Architecture.
