Head of the Institute: doc. Ing. arch. Jana Vinárčiková, PhD. vinarcikova@fa.stuba.sk
Secretary: Gabriela Guštárová kl. 442, tel: +421 2 57276 442, gabriela.gustarova@stuba.sk
About the Department
The Department of Interior and Exhibition Design emerged as a separate entity within the Faculty of Architecture of the STU in 1990 thanks to the initiative of Professor Ivan Petelen and the other then employees. Its aim and ambition is to follow and develop the basic principles and traditional values of Slovak interior architecture as represented by the doyens of interior design education Vojtech Vilhan, Rastislav Janák and other creatively active architects in the field of interior environment of buildings. The Department’s programme consists of developing and transforming the proposed ideas according to contemporary perspectives to match their current state of innovation.
The Department’s primary function is to provide a comprehensive education process in the field of interior design within the engineering-focused study programme 5.1.1 Architecture and Urbanism and the arts-focused study programme 2.2.6 Design. In order to connect the methodology of education to actual practical tasks, we cooperate continuously with institutions outside the Faculty: currently with the Slovak Environment Agency of the Slovak Ministry of Environment, the section of National Business Centre – Creative Point and many other organisations. Numerous reciprocal contacts with other educational institutions in Slovakia as well as the Czech Republic are typical, in particular with the Faculty of Wood Sciences and Technology in Zvolen, the Faculty of Arts at the Technical University of Košice, the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology at Mendel University, and the Faculty of Civil Engineering at Brno University of Technology. Tuition is conducted in Slovak and English languages.
In relation to its educational activities, the Department organises a yearly student competition for the Professor Vilhan Award for the best student project in Slovakia in the field of interior design and participates in competitions organised by other partners on an international level.
Research activities and creative arts projects are closely linked to designing interior spaces, furniture and features of urban interior, and to their impact on humanisation, the quality of environment and personal health. The Department also undertakes research into the extensive complex of attributes related to interior designing with emphasis on wood materials, and into the mapping and generation of identity signs in Slovakia and of aspects related to innovation and further development. Presently, the research activities also include a project aiming to survey 20th century Slovak interior architects and to introduce their output to the public. Scientific activities are carried out in the form of basic and applied research, which is characterised by final realisation of prototypes and collaboration with external institutions. The activities are partially linked to education process; this directly supports the proclaimed tendencies towards integrating new forms of education. Research results are regularly presented at both domestic and foreign conferences, symposia and other events and published in scientific/professional journals, proceedings and other periodicals.
Individual members of the Department are active within the arts-creative sphere, as evidenced by a number of designed and realised works in the fields of architecture, design and interior designing as well as by a registration of design and utility model rights for selected design works at the Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic. The results of the employees’, the postgraduates’ and the students’ artistic production are regularly presented at exhibitions and other events with the purpose of publicising them and bringing them closer to the general public.
Interior design as we understand it is a creative process that synthesises artistic, engineering, physiological and psychological-sociological aspects, as a link between architecture, design and engineering with its own specific creative methods and means of expression. Interior designing is perceived not only as a “simple” dimension of “furnishing” but as a dimension that is responsible for all-around complex modelling of interior space, generation of interconnected compositional relations, and designing and synthesising both interior elements and visual details. Our purpose is to continue developing all aspects of this interior designing perspective both in the education process and in other activities within the context of cultural and historical traditions, territorial influences, individual categories of architectural objects, existing material-technological foundations, artistic movements and current innovations.
Jana Vinárčiková
