The Palach Memorial will be built by MCA studio, the holders of the Grand Prix

Prague - The John Palach Memorial in Všetaty will be created according to the design by architects Miroslav Cikán and Pavla Melková from the MCA studio. The jury led by architect Josef Pleskot selected it from 31 proposals. The memorial, with a strong emotional charge, will open to its first visitors in January 2018, said Michal Lukeš, director of the National Museum, during the announcement of the results today. All competition entries will be displayed in its New Building starting Wednesday. The museum is the administrator of the Palach House.

Pavla Melková and Miroslav Cikán established the architectural office MCA in 1996. The primary goal of their studio is to humanize architecture. They received a Grand Prix award in 2012 for the reconstruction of the bastion in Prague at Karlov.

The jury awarded second place in the competition to the proposal by Tomáš Zavoral and Jiří Rozkovec, while Szymon Rozwalka from the office of RO_AR Szymon Rozwalka architects received third place.

Regarding the winning design, the jury particularly appreciated "a comprehensively intellectually managed approach with a precisely thought-out dramaturgy of the exhibition aimed at interpreting Palach's legacy." The original house is preserved in its basic structural substance, while the authors inserted an edge symbolizing the communist regime. The edge points toward a flash of light and an abandoned family table, which may also represent the shared table of a nation that has become deserted.

"I appreciate that the creators of the winning proposal emphasized the moral message of Jan's sacrifice as a determining principle of the spatial solution," said Minister of Culture Daniel Herman (KDU-ČSL). "What impacted Czech society (in Palach's act) had its weight, substance, dimension. The danger that Jan saw was not imaginary; it did not stem from his hypersensitivity. It was entirely real and is presented here as such," said the minister.

Student Jan Palach self-immolated on January 16, 1969, in protest against how quickly people resigned from any resistance against the occupation of the country by the Warsaw Pact forces. In Prague, Palach's act is commemorated by a memorial plaque in the pavement of Wenceslas Square, another on the wall of the Faculty of Philosophy at Palach Square, and a grave in Olšany. The house in Všetaty was purchased last year by the Czech state and is managed by the NM. The overall design of the memorial resulting from the competition should be based on its significant division into three main zones - symbolic, contemplative, and educational.