Faculty of Arts in Plzeň will open a program in Environmental Design for Architecture

Plzeň - A new artistic studio focused on design and architecture with an emphasis on the relationship between humans and nature will open from the next academic year at the Faculty of Design and Art Ladislav Sutnar of the University of West Bohemia in Plzeň. The faculty has gained accreditation for a bachelor's and subsequent master's study studio in Environmental Design for Architecture. The guarantor will be Zdeněk Fránek, who last year received the Architect of the Year 2020 award for his extraordinary contribution to architecture in the past five years. Applications can be submitted until noon on August 16, and the admission process will also take place in August, Lenka Thomayer Opatrná from Sutnarka, as the faculty is called, announced today.

"In all areas of human activity, such as culture, industry, science, education, housing, sports, recreation, and gastronomy, harmony, respect, and sustainability in our relationships with the environment are important. These qualities will be sought and expressed by students through the expressive means of design and architecture," she stated. Students will focus on current trends and market demands.

Fránek has been at Sutnarka since October 2019, teaching an elective subject in the follow-up Master's program. Students worked on topics such as mobile homes, a park in the campus of the University of West Bohemia, or the city of the future. Currently, students of this pre-incubation subject in Slavonice are preparing a campaign against tree felling, which will culminate in a presentation at the summer film and music festival Slavonice fest at the beginning of August.

"Interdisciplinary creation of sustainable design will focus on topics such as landscape ecology, plant ecology, biodiversity, protection of night darkness, environmental sociology, and more. Students should be able to effectively connect with experts such as architects, urban planners, biologists, botanists, sociologists, philosophers, and others who can influence the environment design they create through their scientific activities," Fránek described the focus of the new studio.

Sutnarka offers 22 studios, attended by more than 700 students. In addition to traditional artistic fields, such as graphics, painting, sculpture, and spatial design or metal and jewelry, it also offers animation, photography, interactive design, furniture and interior design, ceramics, industrial or product design, graphic design and visual communication, comics and illustrations for children, as well as a studio for bookmaking and paper shaping.

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