The exhibition at the Trade Fair Palace presents drawings by Jan Kaplický

Prague - The drawings and collages of Jan Kaplický are being exhibited at the National Gallery in Prague at the Trade Fair Palace. The exhibition aims to familiarize visitors with a lesser-known aspect of his work on the occasion of the architect's posthumous 78th birthday. The exhibition has moved to Prague from the Architectural Association Gallery in London.
Drawing was part of Kaplický's creative process, helping him experiment and articulate his thoughts and visions on paper. Thus, the exhibition can also celebrate the traditional method of hand drawing, as digital technologies now play a primary role even in architecture.
   "Jan Kaplický was one of the first to experiment with organic and biomorphic shapes even before the advent of the computer age, at a time when drawing complex curves meant laboriously tracing lines with a pen," stated architect Richard Rogers regarding the project, who became acquainted with Kaplický during the Paris Centre Pompidou project and is also the author of the foreword to the book accompanying the exhibition.
The exhibited works come from the archives of the Kaplický Centre Foundation in Prague, where they have been stored since the architect's death in 2009. The oldest works in the exhibition were created in the early 1970s—while during the day, Kaplický worked in other architects' offices, evenings and weekends were spent at home drawing and designing. The architecture he created at that time was a draft and a section meticulously drawn down to the last detail. Perpetually dissatisfied, he constantly sought to develop and refine his graphic language.
In 1979, Jan Kaplický, along with David Nixon, founded the studio Future Systems. From design studies, such as for NASA's International Space Station, the studio gradually shifted toward building realization, which involved a change in working methods. The Lord's Media Centre, awarded the Stirling Prize in 1999, thus became the last project that Kaplický completely drew by hand. Although Future Systems has since produced formal drawings on the computer, Kaplický continued to sketch his designs.
With the opening of the exhibition, the organizers announced the first annual Kaplický Internship competition to support the youngest generation of Czech architects. The Bakala Foundation will seek out distinctive talents among recent graduates of architectural schools. The winner will have the opportunity to undertake an internship at one of the leading architectural studios in Britain - the first recipient will go to the London studio of Eva Jiřičná.