VELUX appreciated the visions of students about residential attics

The fourth year of the competition titled "Family House with Living Attic", organized by VELUX Czech Republic, s.r.o. for students of secondary vocational schools in construction, has announced its winners. Students who advanced to the national round presented their works at the Písecká Brána in Prague and the winners received their awards. The jury awarded four main prizes without ranking.

“We are pleased with the increasing quality of the works of the competing students. Most of the submitted projects are characterized not only by high aesthetic and functional quality but often also deal with the application of low-energy principles, non-traditional materials, or recycling,” said Ing. arch. Klára Bukolská from VELUX during the ceremonial announcement at Prague's Písecká Brána.

A total of twenty-three secondary vocational schools in construction from across the Czech Republic entered the competition, from which the expert jury selected four winning projects. The winning works are processed at a high architectural and graphic level. The selected works represent four different approaches of similar quality of processing, and the jury found no reason to differentiate these works with different prizes, therefore they are evaluated equally. The expert jury included Ing. arch. Ján Stempel, vice-dean for construction at the Czech Technical University in Prague, Ing. arch. Jiří Palacký, PhD., vice-dean for external and internal relations at the Faculty of Architecture, Brno University of Technology, and Ing. arch. Klára Bukolská from VELUX.

The four main prizes of the "Family House with Living Attic" competition and a reward of CZK 7,500 were awarded to the following students (listed in alphabetical order by surname):

• Petr Koláček from the technical secondary vocational school in Uherské Hradiště. The jury positively assessed the bold spatial solution of the basic mass of the house and further the creation of pleasant spaces both inside and outside the house.
• Jakub Meloun from the construction secondary vocational school in Havlíčkův Brod. The jury appreciated the distinctive mass solution of his work, which, in harmony with the terrain, appears very extravagant and yet cultivated.
• David Ptáček from the construction secondary vocational school in Havlíčkův Brod. The award was decided by the simple cylindrical form embedded in the slope, which aims for energy savings in combination with a pleasant living environment. The jury appreciated the effort for an energy-efficient concept of the building, which is also well documented. Uniform illumination of the house is achieved due to the optimal arrangement of roof windows in the cylindrical roof.
• Jan Tesárek from the construction secondary vocational school in Prague – Dušní. The author received the award for the simple and clean concept with adequate spatial solution. The jury also appreciated the transformation of the traditional form into modern architectural shapes.

Jury member Ing. arch. Jiří Palacký, PhD., evaluated this year's edition and the works of students as follows: “What I appreciate most about the entire competition is its open assignment conditions and openness to creativity. The submitted works generally showed quality technical execution. The authors of the selected works have good prospects for admission to university. In many projects, I would welcome at least basic light studies of the change in spatial qualities of the proposed building influenced by natural and artificial lighting in relation to the designed glazing of roof and wall surfaces.

“The quality of the presented works pleasantly surprised me, some projects would hold up even in the evaluation of semester works in higher years at universities,” added Ing. arch. Ján Stempel, a member of the expert jury and vice-dean for construction at the Czech Technical University in Prague.

In addition to the four winning projects, the jury also recognized another six works and distributed a reward of CZK 12,000 among their authors. Students from any year of secondary vocational schools in construction could enter the competition, during the period from October 31, 2007, to December 31, 2007. From the first round, the first three proposals from each registered school advanced to the national level or proposals awarded a so-called wild card, which was selected by a jury composed of representatives from the school and VELUX.

The goal of the competition, and thus of VELUX, is to support future architects and designers and provide opportunities for further education in the area of living attics, where roof windows are used as the main source of illumination. The fourth edition is under the auspices of the Association of Architects and the Design Centre of the Czech Republic.