In 1982 Eva started her own practice in the UK where she is best known for her work on the interiors of shops including Joseph and Harrods, as well as her work at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Canada Water Bus Station and Leicester Library. In 1999 she opened a second practice in Prague, AI DESIGN, with a Czech partner Petr Vágner. She has completed many projects in Czech including hotels, university buildings and multipurpose auditoriums.
Why should people enter the WAN Awards EMEA?
Any profession that depends on continuous progress should enter competitions to see what other people in their industry are doing. Seeing ourselves in the context of others allows us to move forwards. The WAN Awards EMEA take in such a broad region and receive so many entries and there is so much to learn from entering. It’s not about winning, it’s a question of being able to see yourself in the broader regional context.
Your career spans over 50 years – how has the industry changed?
The position of women has changed drastically in that time. There were not enough women in the profession when I started out. Although there is still a long way to go there’s definitely been substantial and welcome change in that time.
When I started out we were using the expression ‘it can’t be built’. You don’t hear that anymore. There might be practical or financial reasons not to build something, but much more is possible from a technical point of view these days. Architects also work much more closely with engineers. There’s much more collaboration and this co-operation enriches how architects work.
The use of computer technology is another huge change – 50 years ago everything was hand drawn using the architecture scale. I think people are losing the sense of scale – it’s harder to get a sense of the size of a building when you’re looking at it on a computer screen. I’m always asking ‘how big is it?’. I like to print out designs in full size to fully understand the scale. I always advise my students to think about the scale and size they’re working with.
What attracted you to becoming a judge for the WAN Awards EMEA?
The older you are, the more people come to ask for advice and you see how much you can help and pass on to them. There’s also a certain amount of experience one gains from being a judge and I learn a lot from the process. I like to encourage people and offer sensible feedback rather than let them down.
What sort of scheme will you be hoping to see among the entries?
I’m always hoping for innovation – that’s what drives us forward. We can’t stop change and architects necessarily have to respond to it, as well as predict what will happen next in order to create the present. Otherwise, we risk falling behind. So, I will be looking for projects that offer new interpretations of old designs and use imagination. Imagination is the word that is most important to architects.
What in your view are the biggest challenges for architects operating in the EMEA region today?
Understanding the needs of our planet is the biggest challenge not only for architects but for every human being. We must have a sense of responsibility and the courage to sacrifice some of our comfort. There is a laziness of mind in some of the large architectural practices where it’s easy to do things the way they’ve been done before because the profit is higher so they do it again and again and again.
Tell us a bit about what you're working on at the moment.
I’m currently working on a real variety of large projects in Czech. From a very big urban project in Prague – 106,000 square metres that have to be developed up to the last detail, to the restoration of a 13th century castle to the conversion of a Communist era 22-storey block of flats in Ostrava. I worked in England and all over the world for 53 years. Nothing was really happening in Czech during that time, it was in complete isolation after the Russian invasion in 1968. Now I’m trying to take all that practical experience and give something back to Czech, to the young generation here.