The FOR ARCH Trade Fair will be focused also on support of technical education this year
The first topic of the International Trade Fair FOR ARCH announced this year is support of technical education, whose importance has been continually growing for several years. Within the framework of popularisation of building trades and crafts, the trade fair will become the place of another final round of the SUSO competition as well. This competition presentation has been attended, since its beginning in 1996, by more than 4,500 selected pupils accompanied by more than 1,700 teachers, and on average approximately 80 specialised technical schools could present their work and art there. The first qualification round of this competition focused on craftsmanship and craft skills will be held, for the regions of Prague, Central Bohemia and Northern Bohemia, on January 22-23 at the PVA EXPO PRAGUE Exhibition Centre. The qualification rounds for other regions, including Slovakia, will always follow in monthly intervals.
Another important event which the visitors can look forward to is the announcement of the results of the competition of young architects known as Young Architect Award (YAA). Its aim is to help the beginning creators under 33 years of age to find their place on the architectonic stage, and at the same time to make the general public familiar with contemporary architecture and to support public discussion focused on this topic. The competition works which can be registered already now will be assessed by the professional jury in the course of June. Both these competitions are sponsored by the Ministry of Industry and Trade and by the Association of Building Entrepreneurs of the Czech Republic. From the above mentioned facts it is also clear that the Building Trade Fair FOR ARCH is not just a five-day matter, but that it really represents a year-round event.
The other announced topic of the trade fair is the area of quality of products and materials. In this context, the already traditional competition “Building of the Year”, which has been a top event of the trade fair for several years, will be organised under the auspices of the Foundation for Development of Architecture and Civil Engineering (ABF). This year it will be enriched with an innovation - competition entitled “Product/Technology of the Year for Architecture and Civil Engineering”.