Anna Šťastná

CV
Anna Šťastná is an architect whose work explores the social and political aspects of architecture and the possibilities for combining the discipline with audiovisual art. She completed her bachelor's degree at the Faculty of Architecture at Brno University of Technology and subsequently graduated with a master's degree from the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (UMPRUM) in Studio A2 under the supervision of Eva Franch i Gilabert. Her diploma thesis, titled Injecting Care: City Tool Kit, which addresses the transformation of residential institutional care for children, received the UMPRUM No Limits Award for an exceptional achievement in the field of architecture and design. The theme of reforming institutional care for children and young adults at risk continues as a focus of her ongoing artistic research. As part of internships, she studied at ENSA Montpellier in France and the Department of Documentary Film at FAMU in Prague.

Dissertation
This dissertation examines the role of architecture in the process of transforming institutional care in the Czech Republic. It focuses on vulnerable children and adolescents in children’s homes and educational institutions. The artistic research combines methods of architectural ethnography, examines the historical and current state of the institutional child care system, analyzes the legal framework of care in the Czech Republic, and assesses the impacts of the new Housing Support Act on the transformation of care for children and young adults at risk. The aim of the doctoral thesis is to create, based on the findings, a comprehensive methodological manual for care providers, state institutions, local governments, care users and architects. The manual is intended to support prevention efforts to reduce the number of children removed from their biological families and placed in institutional care due to housing difficulties, to accelarate the deinstitutionalization of care for children at risk, and to contribute follow-up housing support for young adults leaving institutional facilities.