What more could a successful project wish for? Attention and continuity! Project Czech Off-Grid Houses has launched its second year of operations this February through a visionary architectural competition targeted at students of major Czech universities. Hundreds of architecture students are expected to come up with a detailed draft plans for evolutionary off-grid housing systems. The deadline for the first round of competition is May 31st, 2017 and the second round with final presentations will take place on June 29th-30th, 2017.
Three major Czech universities are taking part: Czech Technical University in Prague (ČVUT), Technical University in Brno (VUT) and Technical University in České Budějovice (VŠTE). The students undergo specialized in-depth workshops aimed at informing them about the off-grid architecture movement and its specifics. The competition runs in two rounds, with the final round hoping to bring forward a winning draft that is not just architecturally pleasing but also eco-friendly and functional in the off-grid conditions. By “off-grid,” the competitions’ authors are looking for a building that is not dependent on any utility networks, is sustainable as much as possible, and respects its natural surroundings as much as possible.
The previous year’s competition brought forward some amazing studies created by very talented engineering and architecture students. Their projects are currently being developed and construction will start in the Spring of 2018. You can check out last year’s students’ works on the project’s website.
Pavel Podruh, the Project’s founder and creator, says this:
We would like to bring forward the current issues surrounding sustainable living. With current fast evolving technologies, we are able to create eco-friendly, more sustainable homes that are fully functional and in tune with modern life-style. It means that our houses will be educational – not only for the students who are working on the projects, but also for future visitors of the real houses that we are scheduled to build. We’d like to show that living more sustainably can go hand in hand with beautiful, modern architecture as well as with modern demands of our lives. An off-grid house is an extreme, which helps us bring forward the advanced clean technologies into public’s attention and more importantly help to create demand for them in mainstream construction.
Read and listen to an interview in English with Pavel Podruh, the Project’s founder and creator, on Radio Prague (Český Rozhlas – Radio Prague).
Be the first to comment