Opening conference

This year we are also experiencing the strong effects of climate change in Slovakia.  They are coming faster than all the forecasts warned, and their effects are compounded this winter by the energy crisis. As architects, this situation affects us significantly more than other professions – we are the ones who, through our designs, determine the (in)demanding nature of heating or cooling the buildings and public spaces in which we live and work, the use of building materials and processes with a (large) carbon footprint in new construction or renovation. At the urban scale, we are also co-responsible for the (dis)necessity of car use in everyday life in and around the city.

Is it really not possible to design our cities more efficiently?  What tools and technologies do we have at our disposal as architects and urban planners? What can we do differently? Can good spatial design help the most vulnerable?

Finding answers to these questions is the aim of a new collaboration between FAD STU and the University of Stavanger, Norway, through the project “Urban and community sustainability in planning and architecture”, supported by Norwegian grants and the state budget of the Slovak Republic.

The opening of the cooperation on Wednesday 25 January 2023 at the FAD kicked off with the search for an answer to the very first question, whether it is possible to design energy-independent and even plus urban districts in our conditions. However, the cooperation will last until April 2024 and will include the innovation of the content and teaching methods of several subjects at the bachelor’s and engineering degree under the leadership of Assoc. Ing.arch. K. Smatanová, PhD. and doc. Ing.arch. Lei Rolla, PhD.; joint consultations of diploma and PhD theses with Norwegian architects, the opportunity to go on a short research mobility to the University of Stavanger, as well as a final workshop and conference associated with the presentation of all the new knowledge.