The Architect of the Year award was won by Ivan Kroupa, the creator of the DOX center

Prague - The award for extraordinary contribution to architecture in the last five years, the Architect of the Year 2023 award, was bestowed upon architect Ivan Kroupa. The jury's honorary mention was awarded posthumously to Jiří Zhoř.

The Architect of the Year award has been organized by ABF for the fifteenth time. The award is given to individuals who have significantly contributed to architecture in the Czech Republic through their approach in the last five years. It highlights specific creative or organizational efforts leading to the creation of quality construction, whether related to building design, theoretical, educational, promotional, publishing, or popularization activities.

In addition to Kroupa, the finalists of this year's competition included Roman Brychta, Markéta Cajthamlová, Marek Chalupa, and Roman Koucký. Their work and approach were evaluated by a jury composed of Zdeněk Fránek, Petr Stolín, Stanislav Fiala, Petr Hájek, and last year's laureates Ladislav Kuba and Tomáš Pilař.

Ivan Kroupa is a prominent name in contemporary Czech architecture. According to experts, each of his buildings is an icon of the highest architectural value, with a clearly readable handwriting; the always unique spatial solutions go hand in hand with a precise selection of materials in their raw form, as the jurors agreed. According to them, Kroupa says what he thinks and does what he must, creating minimally yet expressively. Kroupa's works include, for example, the Karmáškova printing house in České Budějovice, DOX center in Prague, or the technological building of the Academy of Art, Architecture and Design.

Kroupa studied at the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University in the 1980s and began his practice in London, Paris, and Barcelona in 1989. He started his independent practice in 1990. From 2002 to 2008, he served as head of the studio at the Faculty of Architecture of Czech Technical University, and then led a studio at the Academy of Art, Architecture and Design in Prague (2008 to 2022). In 2019, he received the Ministry of Culture Award for his contribution to architecture.

Jiří Zhoř (1974 to 2022) was, according to the jury, a completely unique creator not only on the Czech scene but also in terms of the best that today’s world architecture has to offer. He was primarily an interior designer, and experts highlight the expressive intensity, purity, detail of execution, and creative approach in his work. Among his many projects, the jury recalled two existing realizations in the Brno passage of the Komerční banka on Freedom Square, symmetrically placed studios for a fashion salon and a hairdresser.