The project, "Vertical Studio Gregor Varga Smatanová" from the Faculty of Architecture and Design (FAD) of the Slovak University of Technology (STU) in Bratislava won the European Cultural Center Award (ECC Awards) at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025.
The jury awarded it in the university project category for the research and artistic work "Mansions and small noble houses in Slovakia".
The STU project was presented in the Palazzo Mora premises as part of the ECC biennial exhibitions and prevailed in the competition with 207 works from 52 countries. “The success of the studio represents significant international recognition for Slovak architecture and for the FAD STU, which has long supported the themes of cultural heritage, regional identity and sustainable renewal,” said STU Vice-Rector Katarína Smatanová.
As part of the project, the studio’s students and teachers are exploring forgotten aristocratic residences across Slovakia – their architectural layers, historical stories and potential for new forms of life in the 21st century. The project’s research is led by the authors in collaboration with local communities, non-governmental organizations and the Slovak Heritage Board. The team is dedicated to documenting the objects, analyzing their cultural and landscape context, possibilities for adaptive reuse and ecological revitalization. The result is a spatial narrative that connects the past and the present and reveals these objects as “silent witnesses of time, resilience and transformation”, the ECC said.
Source: STVR
