Dana Matějovská is a long-term head of the Institute of Model Design (MOLAB) at the CTU Faculty of Engineering, where she teaches computer-aided design and the methodology of teaching. She herself studied architecture at the Czech Technical University in 1976–1982.
After graduation, she joined the Sportprojekt design institute, where she worked until its final dissolution ten years later. Due to the focus of the design institute, the architect had the opportunity to work on interesting and not quite usual assignments. Only the project of the Coubertin Hotel in Prague Strahov was realized. Dana Matějovská took over its completion after the architect Miloš Kopřiva, who was forced to leave Sportproject prematurely. The architect found her next workplace in the newly founded studio of Ladislav Lábus. After a year of cooperation, however, she decided to look for a different way of employment than the design practice offered.
She focused her interest on computer-aided design and visualization, which slowly began to spread in the Czech Republic in the mid-1990s. She first worked on visualisations, animations and other forms of architectural representations in cooperation with the ARCHON studio, where she acquired the appropriate know-how from her colleagues. Later she worked as a freelancer and thanks to her expertise she was able to gain insight into the creative process of many renowned studios, such as ADNS architects, Bílek Associates, the House and City studio and others.
After several years of practice, she also offered her skills to her alma mater. At first she introduced the principles of computer-aided design to architecture students as a freelancer, but gradually the faculty became her main workplace. Since 2006, she has been the head of the Institute of Model-Based Design, whose function and mission she and her colleagues Henri Achten and Vratislav Polívka conceived from the bottom-up. From the beginning, the Institute has been committed to publishing its findings and sharing its experience in teaching computer-aided design with colleagues internationally. Later, Matějovská extended her teaching activities to other schools of architecture that needed help with introducing computer-aided design. In 2015, she received her PhD from the Faculty of Civil Engineering at the CTU on the topic of CAD teaching.
But Dana Matějovská's field of activity is far from being limited to teaching. She has been member of the academic senates of the CTU and CTU FA. Together with her colleague Ivana Vinšová, she organised several editions of the Revit Open competition with the aim of promoting cooperation between architecture and civil engineering students. She also advocates the establishment of a polytechnic workshop on the FabLab model in the Dejvice campus of the university. Last but not least, she has been involved in the development of the methodology for the evaluation of artistic outputs through the RUV registry, in which she is a guarantee for the architecture segment. In 2022, she habilitated in the field of architecture by working on the Registry of Artistic Outputs.
Sources:
Rozhovor Kláry Brůhové s Danou Matějovskou, v rámci výzkumného projektu "Ženy v architektuře" [Interview by Klára Brůhová with Dana Matějovská, as part of the research project "Women in Architecture"], Praha, 24. 5. 2022.
Profesní životopis Dany Matějovské [Professional CV of Dana Matějovská], dostupný na: https://www.fa.cvut.cz/cs/fakulta/lide/292-dana-matejovska/zivotopis, vyhledáno 9. 11. 2022.
