In the Wooden House competition, 136 designs will compete

PRAGUE - A total of 136 proposals have been submitted to the Wooden House competition for the best projects of wooden family and apartment buildings. The interest has exceeded the organizers' expectations, and with the number of projects, the event is the largest architecture competition in recent years, as stated in the press release from the Wood for Life Foundation and the Czech Chamber of Architects. The aim of the competition is to support modern wooden constructions in the Czech Republic and the use of wood in construction, where this material currently enjoys rather low interest.
The competition was announced in categories for the project of a low-energy wooden family house and for the project of a low-energy wooden apartment building. Participants submitted 115 proposals in the first category and 21 in the second category; the acceptance of projects ended on the last day of February.
"Given the focus and scope of the competition, we anticipated a strong interest from the professional public, but the total number of submitted projects has pleasantly surprised us," stated the chairman of the jury, architect Josef Smola.
The winning projects will be announced on April 26, 2006, as part of the Brno International Building Fair IBF. In the family house category, the winning proposal will receive an award of 200,000 crowns, and in the apartment building category, 300,000 crowns. A total of 1.1 million crowns will be distributed in prizes.
The goal of the competition is also to create a database of quality projects based on wooden constructions and to subsequently offer them to the public, including raising awareness among builders and investors about the properties of wooden buildings.
While in the Czech Republic wooden constructions make up about one percent of housing construction, in neighboring Germany, it is seven percent, in Austria and Switzerland, ten percent, and in the Nordic countries, more than 60 percent. According to survey results from the Czech Chamber of Architects, the low interest in wooden constructions is primarily due to clients' insufficient knowledge and prejudices against wood.
The competition aimed at promoting wooden constructions and wood in construction was initiated in mid-last year by the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Regional Development, and the Ministry of the Environment joined in, and in cooperation with the Wood for Life Foundation and the Czech Chamber of Architects, they prepared the announcement of the Wooden House competition by November 30, 2005.