The independent Faculty of Architecture of CTU was founded in the mid-1970s, but the teaching of this field has an almost three-hundred-year tradition in Prague. From the mid-18th century, architecture education was taught as a synthesis of art, science and technology as part of the teaching of building construction at the Estates School of Engineering, founded in 1707. In the following century, the school was transformed into a polytechnic institution and in 1864 the separate department of architecture – building construction and civil engineering was established.
ABOUT the FACULTY
This is our oldest, largest and most important institution providing education in the field of architecture. The school, based on openness, has also been able to expand its traditional focus on architecture and urbanism with other fields – such as design and landscape architecture – thanks in part to the space provided by its newest building. The Faculty of Architecture is also a prestigious workplace focusing on research, and scientific and artistic creative activities.
01
300 YEARS OF TRADITION
02
TOP-LEVEL THEORY AND STRONG TIES TO PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE
The interconnection of theory and practice forms the school’s teachers and students alike. We need only to recall Josef Zítek, the first dean in the field, designer of the National Theater building in Prague, or point to his current successor Ladislav Lábus, a renowned architect with international experience and holder of the Ministry of Culture Award, or Professor Emeritus, Alena Šrámková, designer of the FA building, as well as the school’s concept of "learning by doing", i.e. combining school education with practical experience in the form of executed projects. So far, the most successful has been AIR House, with which students scored highly in an international competition.
03
RESEARCH STATIONS BENEFIT THE PUBLIC
The Faculty is not just about teaching and teaching activities. For example, in our research work, we explore buildings in relation to the changing needs of society, such as population aging or the transformation of large housing estates into full-fledged urban neighborhoods. The Industrial Heritage Research Center focuses on research in industrial monuments. And for the professional public, we hold international congresses, conferences and workshops. To the general public, the results of our work are most often presented on the pages of professional magazines or books published by publishers focused on architecture, urbanism, landscape, design or culture in general.
04
FACULTY BUILDING
The new building, in which the faculty has made its home since 2011, is well laid out and transparent. It makes possible that, which we are striving for in the school and which we value: communication and the opportunity to come together to work. The design by Alena Šrámková and her colleagues, former FA students, supports interaction and does not limit the intervention from outside. In their words, the building has “a kind of dispositional logic, where nobody can get lost, where you can see where everybody is and, mainly, where nobody is, and it is a place where students will perhaps work more at school than at home”.
05
OPEN PLATFORM
We do not live in a bubble! At the Faculty of Architecture you can not only meet former students who do not want to lose contact with the school, but maybe even a neighbour in the lectures for the general public, or you can meet your grandmother in the café, having signed up for University of the Third Age… Meetings with architects and designers of worldwide renown, who come to the school for workshops, conferences or lectures, are also an inspiration and font of new impulses for students and teachers.
06
MEMBERSHIP IN INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS
