Prague, 9th of October 2015

The Bakala Foundation in collaboration with the Kaplicky Centre Foundation and the Design Museum of London announces the first winner of the Kaplicky Internship in the architectural student competition. The winner is Ondřej Michálek from the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague.

The prize winner also receives a three-month internship at one of the prestigious British architectural studios. In the coming months Ondřej Michálek will be welcomed by fellow architects at Eva Jiřičná’s London architectural studio. Eva Jiřičná was member of the jury, along with Deyan Sudjic, the Director of London Design Museum and Honorary jury member Eliška Kaplicky. During the announcement ceremony, a calendar named Top Design The Furniture was christened. The calendar displays photos and reproductions of sketches of furniture design by Jan Kaplicky.

Eva Jiřičná explained that she was looking forward to a new intern. Over the years that she has spent in London, she has had many interns in her studio. She reports that “There are many promising talented architects in the Czech Republic and I am glad that we can help open the doors to the world to one of them.”

Václav Pech, the Director of the Bakala Foundation added: “We organize the Kaplicky Internship because we want to provide young architects the opportunity to get to know better the work of world’s architectural studios and to help develop interesting contacts that may make the start of their careers easier”.

The winner of the Kaplicky Internship was selected through a three round selection process. The competition had a free topic and was open to final year students of architecture and civil engineering faculties of selected universities (CTU, BUT, TUL, AAAD, TUO, AFA). In the first round were works of the students pre-selected by their teachers at their respective universities. In the second round, the works were assessed by the expert commission composed of prof. Ing. arch. Zdeněk Fránek, prof. akad. arch. Jindřich Smetana, prof. Ing. arch. Alois Nový, CSc and prof. Ing. arch. and Ladislav Lábus, HON FAIA. This commission selected final four works. Subsequently, the Jury of Eva Jiřičná, Deyan Sudjic and Eliška Kaplicky announced, on the basis of interviews with the authors, the first-ever laureate of the Kaplicky Internship.

Ondřej Michálek in his winning work proposed a specific architectural approach that uses the phenomenon of variability and uncertainty as his basic working principles. He was inspired by the growth of mycelium and other living organisms – which he used in creating basic set of rules. Subsequently, he examined the territorial implications of applying these rules at a specific moment and in a certain location as the “Pavilion of Growth.”

The organizers will cover the transport costs and pocket money for the winner for the duration of his/her internship.

The Kaplicky Internship Program is one of the many activities through which Michaela and Zdeněk Bakala support the development of the modern art and architecture. Mr. and Mrs. Bakala are longstanding partners of the DOX Centre of Contemporary Art in Prague and since 2014 also of the one of the world’s most prestigious museums, Design Museum in London. They also cooperate with the leading Spanish and internationally acclaimed architect Ricardo Bofill, who is the author of the reconstruction of the former industrial building ČKD Boiler Factory into the modern administrative complex called Forum Karlín. Here in the unique newsroom found its new residence the publishing house Economia, as well as other multinational companies. An integral part of the Forum Karlín is a multifunctional hall which combines elements of the modern architecture with the original character of the building and meets the most demanding acoustic and technical requirements for holding cultural and social events. Forum Karlín was opened to the public by Mr. and Mrs. Bakala in 2014 and is considered by the experts as one of the top modern Czech buildings.

It was the cooperation with leading international designers and architects that led to the creation of the project of Kaplicky Internship. The Kaplicky Internship aims to provide opportunities for further development of young Czech architects and to promote Jan Kaplicky’s legacy.