A weekend student workshop took place at Kuklík
Brno architect Pavel Rada completed a meticulous reconstruction of a traditional timber house a few years ago, located in solitude near the village of Kuklík in the Vysočina region. Not far from it, in a place with a beautiful view of the building itself and its surroundings, a small wooden viewing platform has also sprung up. It is a place from which the owner of the cottage and the author of its reconstruction can indulge in relaxation while looking out at the horse paddock; similarly, this viewpoint is often used for resting by tourists walking along the busy hiking trail nearby. Over time, the platform has slowly deteriorated, and its author has started considering replacing it with something new that would better serve both his guests and passersby. However, the intention is not to create a conventional shelter that appears like mushrooms after rain from funds from various grant programs in every corner of our republic.
As the most suitable way to confront his thoughts with the opinions of others, he chose to organize a student workshop. He approached David Mikulášek and Nicol Gale, who work at the Faculty of Architecture in Brno, with the idea of organizing it. “Their help was immensely beneficial to me because I can't imagine directly addressing the students or announcing some kind of competition,” adds Pavel Rada.
In the workshop, which took place on the first weekend of the summer holidays, two dozen students from the Brno FA VUT and the Prague FA ČVUT ultimately arrived. After their arrival and a several-kilometer hike, which was important for getting acquainted with the local landscape, they formed nine teams. During the weekend, they worked on designs that they continuously consulted not only with Pavel Rada and David Mikulášek but also with instructors Vít Nový, Jan Sochor, and Pavel Chládek. The result was presentation panels and models made from pre-prepared materials. Diligent handcrafted work.
The entire workshop had the character of a competition. Besides Pavel Rada, the students' designs were evaluated by architects Zdeněk Jiran and Kamil Mrva. The work of Radka Šťastná, who designed an object based on similar principles as the current platform, was rated as the best. Second place went to the duo Alexandros Kaminaras and Karolína Trinklova for a piece that utilizes the natural terrain configuration and creates a stabilized slope with the help of wooden elements. The third most interesting work was evaluated as the pair of spatial frames by Marika Dumková and Martina Goluchová. The jury also decided to award the approach of the team consisting of Kateřina Kunzová, Adéla Varmužová, and Tereza Kvapilová, who proposed to maintain the existing form of the viewpoint; however, they recommended enriching the landscape with a new element, a wooden tower, which intriguingly worked with the phenomenon of sound. The awarded authors and teams had the opportunity to choose a bottle of wine from a local wine cellar.
Pavel Rada is satisfied with the course of the workshop. “The result is excellent. I was mainly surprised by the commitment of the students. In just two days they accomplished an enormous amount of work. It met my expectations that while these might not be works polished to details, they would reflect a conceptual approach, an expression of ideas. Even though I did not fully identify with any of the proposals and do not think any of them is entirely feasible, I can certainly imagine the students' ideas, and some of the things are certainly close to my thinking.”
Although the original intention was to organize a one-off workshop and possibly realize the best design, the cottage in Kuklík will likely become the site of further workshops. Pavel Rada would like to use this year's outputs for clearer definitions of tasks in the future. Nevertheless, the event convinced him that similar methods could be used to work on other regional themes. “I regret that the school does not strive for us, architects from practice. Other colleagues share a similar feeling. They may invite us to exam commissions, but they do not seem to ever have the desire to organize studios, lectures, or consultations with us. Architecture schools have closed themselves off, there are plenty of people there who have long stopped practicing and are only teaching the profession. I also feel a certain debt towards the students, and as someone from practice, I would like to have contact with the student world. A workshop in this beautiful environment is a suitable opportunity for that.”
As the most suitable way to confront his thoughts with the opinions of others, he chose to organize a student workshop. He approached David Mikulášek and Nicol Gale, who work at the Faculty of Architecture in Brno, with the idea of organizing it. “Their help was immensely beneficial to me because I can't imagine directly addressing the students or announcing some kind of competition,” adds Pavel Rada.
In the workshop, which took place on the first weekend of the summer holidays, two dozen students from the Brno FA VUT and the Prague FA ČVUT ultimately arrived. After their arrival and a several-kilometer hike, which was important for getting acquainted with the local landscape, they formed nine teams. During the weekend, they worked on designs that they continuously consulted not only with Pavel Rada and David Mikulášek but also with instructors Vít Nový, Jan Sochor, and Pavel Chládek. The result was presentation panels and models made from pre-prepared materials. Diligent handcrafted work.
The entire workshop had the character of a competition. Besides Pavel Rada, the students' designs were evaluated by architects Zdeněk Jiran and Kamil Mrva. The work of Radka Šťastná, who designed an object based on similar principles as the current platform, was rated as the best. Second place went to the duo Alexandros Kaminaras and Karolína Trinklova for a piece that utilizes the natural terrain configuration and creates a stabilized slope with the help of wooden elements. The third most interesting work was evaluated as the pair of spatial frames by Marika Dumková and Martina Goluchová. The jury also decided to award the approach of the team consisting of Kateřina Kunzová, Adéla Varmužová, and Tereza Kvapilová, who proposed to maintain the existing form of the viewpoint; however, they recommended enriching the landscape with a new element, a wooden tower, which intriguingly worked with the phenomenon of sound. The awarded authors and teams had the opportunity to choose a bottle of wine from a local wine cellar.
Pavel Rada is satisfied with the course of the workshop. “The result is excellent. I was mainly surprised by the commitment of the students. In just two days they accomplished an enormous amount of work. It met my expectations that while these might not be works polished to details, they would reflect a conceptual approach, an expression of ideas. Even though I did not fully identify with any of the proposals and do not think any of them is entirely feasible, I can certainly imagine the students' ideas, and some of the things are certainly close to my thinking.”
Although the original intention was to organize a one-off workshop and possibly realize the best design, the cottage in Kuklík will likely become the site of further workshops. Pavel Rada would like to use this year's outputs for clearer definitions of tasks in the future. Nevertheless, the event convinced him that similar methods could be used to work on other regional themes. “I regret that the school does not strive for us, architects from practice. Other colleagues share a similar feeling. They may invite us to exam commissions, but they do not seem to ever have the desire to organize studios, lectures, or consultations with us. Architecture schools have closed themselves off, there are plenty of people there who have long stopped practicing and are only teaching the profession. I also feel a certain debt towards the students, and as someone from practice, I would like to have contact with the student world. A workshop in this beautiful environment is a suitable opportunity for that.”
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