Faculty of Design and Art Opens a New Studio. Its Head Will Be Architect of the Year 2020

The Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art obtained accreditation for the Bachelor's and follow-up Master’s programme Environmental Design for Architecture, whose guarantor will be Professor Zdeněk Fránek. The admission procedure will take place in August.

As the name of the programme suggests, the study focuses on design and architecture and emphasizes the relationship between humans and nature. Harmony, respect and sustainability of our relations with the environment play an essential role in all areas of human activities, including culture, industry, science, education, housing, sports, recreation and gastronomy. Students will seek and express these qualities through the means of design and architecture. They will focus on current trends and market requirements, as the touchstone of noble visions is their commercial use.

"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 collaborate with architects, urban planners, biologists, botanists, sociologists, philosophers and others who, through their scientific activities, can influence the design of the environment they create. Graduates become valid members of international teams and will exchange experience and results of their work with their colleagues," explains architect and head of the programme, Zdeněk Fránek, who won the prestigious Architect of the Year 2020 award for his extraordinary contribution to architecture over the past five years.

Applicants for the Bachelor's and follow-up Master's programme Environmental Design can submit their applications by 16 August 2021 by 12 p.m. The conditions of the admission procedure and the requirements for the portfolio can be found on the official board of the Faculty in the section Admission Procedure. The Faculty webpage can be found here: www.fdu.zcu.cz .

Professor Zdeněk Fránek has been working at the Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art since October 2019, teaching an optional course as part of a follow-up Master's degree. Students worked on projects such as Mobile Home, Park on the Campus of the University of West Bohemia or The City of the Future, which was exhibited at Designblok 2020 in Prague. Currently, students of this course are preparing a campaign against tree felling, which will be presented at the famous summer film and music festival Slavonice Fest in early August.

Prof. Ing. Arch. Zdeněk Fránek (born 1961)

architect and educator, born in Boskovice

After graduating from the Faculty of Architecture of Brno University of Technology, Professor Fránek worked at the Chief Architect's Office in Blansko and founded the company Fránek Architects in 1989. He is currently engaged in designing, publishing and teaching activities in the Czech Republic and abroad.

From 2012 to 2018, he was the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Architecture at the Technical University of Liberec.

He has organized a number of exhibitions, including Perspectives in the Jaroslav Frágner Gallery in Prague in 2007, Interior of Architecture in the House of Arts of the City of Brno in 2011-2012, an exhibition at the CCC Gallery in Beijing in 2012, Measure&Scale in the Jaroslav Frágner Gallery in Prague in 2016, Mental Relief in the House of Arts in České Budějovice in 2019 and Figures in the Ladislav Sutnar Gallery in Pilsen in 2020.

He has given various lectures at foreign universities, such as in Ghent, Utrecht, Hildesheim, New Delhi, Beijing, Santiago de Chile, Beijing, Mexico City, New Orleans, Vienna and others.