Activities

The basic mission of the department is to consolidate and improve the teaching of urban design at the Faculty of Architecture while respecting the real possibilities of the staffing potential of the faculty and its study programmes in terms of the current accreditation of the faculty at all levels of study. Urban design, as a comprehensive discipline, must respond to the accelerated development of the world with persistent innovation of theoretical subjects and socially engaged topics in applied subjects, particularly in studio commissions and in the focus of the topics of doctoral dissertations. The current trend for the innovation of subjects at all levels of study is the right one. A coordinated and integrated system of innovation applied at the newly established unit must be its ambition.
The programme follows on from successful project and grant activities. The experience of the individual members of staff of previously separate units allows for more effective and more coordinated preparation and the acquisition of research projects and EU projects with foreign partners. Specific programmes of courses containing the achieved results of innovation can be presented outside the academic environment of the faculty. Courses may be offered to partner universities and faculties for possible exchanges or participation in teaching.
The topicality of subjects associated with problems in urban design is clear from the Faculty of Architecture’s previous co-operation with many towns and cities. Courses can also be offered to the public sphere (civic activities, communal politics, the public administration) as a form of adult education, consultancy or life-long learning.
A platform supporting life-long professional education in urban design disciplines can be prepared for individual target groups in co-operation with institutions such as the Czech Chamber of Architects, the Czech Environmental Partnership Foundation and bodies of the public administration. Fees may be charged (school fees, course fees) for the professional participation of the Faculty of Architecture, through the Department of Urban Design, in educational activities to contribute towards the economic management of the faculty. First and foremost, however, this participation may strengthen the social prestige and public engagement of the Faculty of Architecture.
The conception of the unit is based on the real possibilities of attainment with the essential staffing engaged in the contemporary teaching of urban design subjects, innovated courses, research projects and projects and co-operation with foreign partners. The conception of teaching presented in the mentioned supplement is not unchanging. Its definition in time expresses merely the obligation of retaining innovated subjects from the ESF project in teaching. All the members of staff named below take part in the teaching process at the faculty. They may be heads of studio work within the scope of the faculty as a whole or DSP trainers, or may make an active contribution to grants and projects.