The Gregor Varga Smatanová Vertical Studio (VS) of the STU Faculty of Architecture and Design (STU FAD) has won a prestigious award at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025. The Award was granted by the European Cultural Center Award (ECC Awards) for the exceptional research and art Project of "Mansions and Small Noble Houses in Slovakia" within the University & Research Projects category. The recognised ECC Awards have been given since 2010 for outstanding work in the field of architecture, design and art.
The Gregor Varga Smatanová VS project succeeded in a competition of 207 projects from 52 countries. It attracted a lot of attention with its interdisciplinary approach to and sensitive concept of cultural heritage, where students and teachers of the Studio explored forgotten aristocratic residences across Slovakia – their architectural layers, historical content and potential for new forms of life in the 21st century.
“The success of the Studio represents valuable international recognition for both, Slovak architecture and the STU FAD, which have long supported the topics of cultural heritage, regional identity and sustainable renewal,” said Katarína Smatanová, the STU Vice-Rector.
The authors of the Project conduct the research into Mansions and Small Noble Houses in Slovakia in cooperation with local communities, non-governmental organisations and the Monuments Board of the Slovak Republic. The research team prepares documentation of objects, performs analyses of their cultural and landscape environment, and designs options of adaptive reuse and ecological revitalisation. The result is a spatial narrative connecting the past and the present and revealing those objects as “silent witnesses of time, resilience and transformation”.
The Project was presented at the Palazzo Mora as part of the ECC Venice Biennale Exhibition 2025. The event highlights the inventive projects that bring new concepts of space, people, materials and cultural heritage, and advance these disciplines towards a more sustainable and thoughtful future. The expert jury evaluates originality, quality of execution, narrative clarity and relevance to current topics.
The jury composed of industry experts was composed of Ivan Blasi, Director of the EUmies Awards; Amit Gupta, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of STIRworld; Christele Harrouk, Editor-in-Chief of ArchDaily; Ursula Schwitalla, BDA, Honorary Senator of the University of Tübingen; and Martha Thorne, writer, curator, consultant and urban planner.
Amit Gupta, the ECC jury member, characterised the Project as an artistic expression that reflects lateral thinking of the FAD students and teachers, while simultaneously communicating a simple concept of adaptive reuse, heritage and conservation.
