The ČKA award for the year 2012 was received by David Kopecký in memoriam

The ČKA Honor for the year 2012 was awarded to architect David Kopecký posthumously. The award will be presented at a ceremonial event held on December 3, where it will be received by his wife, director and dramaturg Bára Kopecká. The presentation of the award for 2012 will take place simultaneously with the announcement of the laureate of the 2013 Honor.

In 2012, the expert jury composed of Ing. arch. Viktor Rudiš (chairman of the jury), prof. Ing. arch. akad. arch. Václav Girsa, Ing. Mgr. akad. arch. Petr Hájek, M. A. Svatopluk Sládeček, and Ing. arch. Jaroslav Wertig recommended granting the ČKA Honor to David Kopecký. The jury was particularly motivated to award this architect to highlight his outstanding work and the extraordinary legacy he left behind after his untimely death in 2009.
 
In its justification for the jury's decision, Jaroslav Wertig states: "At the meeting of the expert committee of the ČKA Honor 2012, a significant discussion arose around the nomination of David Kopecký, stemming from varying degrees of familiarity with his personality and work. This further reinforced the need to accentuate his importance through the ČKA Honor and to initiate his theoretical and historiographical evaluation. It would be a mistake to delay and wait for his rediscovery by another generation of art historians." With his unmistakable handwriting and specific approach to architecture, David Kopecký earned immense respect from his colleagues. The endeavor to highlight his work through the Czech Chamber of Architects' award certainly holds great significance even today, five years after his death.

The jury for the Honor 2012 further perceives David Kopecký's work as highly complex: "His opinions, work, personal life, his expression - all exhibited incredible coherence and unity. He himself was a gesamtkunstwerk. He refined every moment, every word, every position he took to perfection. His unsentimental shedding of the insignificant, stripping down to essence became legendary."

It is important that we remember David Kopecký even today thanks to the documentary DK, created by his wife Bára Kopecká. The film received the Pavel Koutecký Award for Best Documentary and presents its main protagonist as a visionary and complex personality. Thanks to color footage from the family archive and black-and-white testimonies from David's close ones and friends, it gains authenticity. Czech Television also included it in its broadcast the day after the award presentation. You can watch it on December 4 at 20:20 on ČT art.

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David Kopecký (1963-2009)
He graduated from the Academy of Art in the studio of Emil Přikryl (1991). In 1995, he co-founded the ksa studio with Ján Studený. His first realization in Slovakia attracted attention and received numerous awards and acclaim. The studio specialized in family houses (e.g., in Senec, Stúpava, and Košice). For the house in Černošice, the ksa studio received several prestigious awards including the Piranesi Award, granted in Slovenia. In 2002, the studio represented the Czech Republic at the Venice Biennale.