Prague on 21st October 2016

The Bakala Foundation, in cooperation with the London Design Museum and the Kaplicky Centre, announced the winner of the 2nd Annual Kaplicky Internship for recent graduates of architectural subjects. The winner of this year’s award is Petra Ross.

In addition to the award, Petra Ross has also been offered a three-month internship at Zaha Hadid Architects in London. The announcement of the winner of the competition was preceded by a debate on the works of Zaha Hadid called “Zaha Hadid: Work and Legacy”, which took place on Thursday at 6 p.m. in DOX Centre for Contemporary Art.

The winner was chosen by an independent jury of experts, including M. Arch, Melodie Leung, Zaha Hadid’s long-time collaborator from her London studio, Mr Deyan Sudjic OBE, director of the Design Museum in London, and doc. Ing. Arch. Vladimir Krátký from the Faculty of Architecture, Czech Technical University (ČVUT), guarantor of the project. Foreign guests as members of the jury of experts accepted the invitation of the Bakala Foundation and the Kaplicky Centre.

“The Kaplicky Internship provides young architects with the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the work of some of the world’s most influential architectural studios based in London and to help them to make interesting contacts when starting their career,” added the Director of the Foundation, Mr Václav Pecha.

Petra Ross is a recent graduate from the Faculty of Arts and Architecture of the Technical University in Liberec (Prof. Ing. arch. Akad. Arch. Jiří Suchomel). It was her design of the London Public Library located in the prominent plot of land on the banks of the River Thames in the vicinity of Tower Bridge which impressed the judges.

“The challenge of the project was to replace the existing part of the Park by a library and preserve the majority of the green space as a public resource at the same time. The main substance of the new building is lost under the park which is lifted above and also serves as a monumental umbrella for the general public, under which extends a through-passage with additional features including a library. By lifting the public-access area on the roof, the park gains more sunny hours and the building meets better environmental standards,” says Petra Ross about her design.

The prize-winning design of Petra Ross is available at: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B1tqqNh59FDWQ01WRjRrQ1NJRUU?usp=sharing

The winner of the Kaplicky Internship is selected through a two-round competition of free-topic architectural works.  Students in the final years of architectural and civil engineering faculties of the given universities (ČVUT, VUT, TUL, VŠUP, VŠB TU, AVU) can participate.  At first, their work must pass the pre-selection process completed by responsible teachers from the above universities. Six new talented architects advanced to the finals – Anna Koukolová from the Faculty of Architecture, ČVUT, Prague, Tadeáš Klaban from VŠUP in Prague, Kateřina Mišáková from the Faculty of Civil Engineering, ČVUT, Prague, František Novák from the Department of Architecture, Faculty of Civil Engineering, VUT in Brno, Norbert Obršál from the Faculty of Architecture, VUT in Brno and Petra Ross from the Faculty of Arts and Architecture, Technical University in Liberec.

The jury of experts selected the overall winner from these finalists based on interviews and presentations of their work. The prize winner is awarded the Kaplicky Internship which covers transportation costs and provides an allowance for the duration of the internship at the Zaha Hadid Architects Studio in London. Extracts from the finalists’ works can be viewed at:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1tqqNh59FDWcVJXcHpoaHZSakU/view.

Last year, the inaugural winner of the Kaplicky Internship was Ondřej Michálek from VŠUP in Prague who successfully completed a three-month internship at the prestigious Eva Jiřičná Architect Studio in London.

Michaela and Zdeněk Bakala have been long-time partners of DOX Centre for Contemporary Art and have been supporters of the Design Museum in London since 2014. The Design Museum was founded in 1989 by Sir Terence Conran, a British designer, with the intention to support young talented designers. The Design Museum will reopen to the public in new premises in Kensington on 24 November 2016. As well as brand new exhibition and learning spaces, the Museum will include the state of the art Bakala Auditorium with a capacity for 200 people. The new Museum building will be officially opened on 14th November by His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh.