The National Library lost the dispute regarding the competition for a new building

Prague - The National Library lost a dispute with the studio HŠH architects over the competition for a new building. The appellate court today upheld the ruling that the institution should have disqualified the winning proposal by Jan Kaplický because it did not meet the competition conditions. Therefore, the library must pay the studio that finished third 1.6 million crowns as the difference in the financial reward for third and second place. The total awarded amount, including interest and legal costs, reaches approximately three million crowns.

Kaplický's proposal won the architectural competition in March 2007 but was never realized. The studio filed a lawsuit in the autumn of the same year. They argued that one of the conditions set before the first round of the competition required placing the National Conservation Fund above ground, which Kaplický did not fulfill with his so-called octopus design.

Vlastimil Ježek, who as the then director of the National Library announced the international architectural competition, led the institution at the time the results were announced and had to resign due to the situation following the competition, told ČTK today that he could not comment on today’s court decision without being familiar with it. "However, everything I said after the first instance ruling still holds," he stated. At that time, he indicated that even if Kaplický's proposal had been disqualified, it would not necessarily mean automatic changes in the amount of the awards distributed.

According to him, Kaplický came up with a solution that neither the client of the competition, the librarians, nor the jury composed of experts could consider safe. "When you have seven world architects in the jury, who are in their twentieth or thirtieth juries at this level and the competition is still overseen by the director of the competition section of the International Union of Architects, I wouldn't dare to instruct them on what they may and may not do," Ježek stated at that time.

"The defense of the defendant (National Library) seems to us inappropriate, unfounded, and out of place," said appellate panel member Ivan Slivka today. "The defendant says that it is uncertain how it would have been if the winning proposal had been excluded. But that is speculation. The claim is actionable and we grant the plaintiff (HŠH architects) the right in all substantive claims." he added.

"For us and for others, the important message is that the National Library is not operating in a legal vacuum. The library has believed all along that it is exempt from all legal norms," commented one of HŠH architects, Tomáš Hradečný, on the decision of the Prague municipal court.

The studio waited over eight years for a final judgment. According to Hradečný, the dispute was challenging also because the library changed its director and legal representative several times during that period. Before filing the lawsuit, the architects repeatedly turned to the Office for the Protection of Competition, which stated that it could not assess the competition as it was not announced according to the Public Procurement Act.

The library may attempt to appeal the verdict to the Supreme Court. "The National Library is still convinced to this day that it did not err. We will wait for the written justification of the ruling, and then we will consider further steps with our lawyers," responded library spokesperson Irena Maňáková. According to her, although the competition conditions have changed, they have done so equally for everyone. In response to a question from ČTK about whether the library would also consider possible retroactive recovery of the awarded prize for first place from Kaplický’s heirs, the spokesperson referred to another consultation with lawyers.