The winner of the Kaplický scholarship is going for an internship with architects in London

Prague - The third holder of the scholarship for young architects, named after the famous creator Jan Kaplický, has become Miroslav Strnad from the Brno University of Technology today in Prague. In the coming months, he will gain experience in London during a three-month internship at the architectural studio Allies and Morrison. The founding architect of the studio, Robert Allies, was a member of the jury that decided on the award in the Kaplicky Internship program. Before the announcement of the results at the DOX center, he gave a lecture today.

The jury also included Deyan Sudjic, director of the Design Museum in London, architect and architectural historian Zdeněk Lukeš, architect and university lecturer Michal Kohout, and honorary jury member Eliška Kaplicky Fuchsová.

"Starting architects have the opportunity through the Kaplicky Internship program to try their hand at significant projects in the company of renowned architects. This experience and the interesting contacts they acquire during the internship are a great advantage at the start of their careers," stated Václav Pecha, director of the Bakala Foundation, which organizes the program together with the Design Museum and the Kaplicky Centre Foundation. Last year's winner completed an internship at Zaha Hadid Architects, and in the first year, the award was for work in the studio of architect Eva Jiřičná.

"During the three months, the scholarship holder will have the opportunity to participate in several projects of varying scale, whether it involves designing an urban plan or detailed interior solutions," said Allies about this year’s winner's stay in his studio.

The recent graduate from the Faculty of Civil Engineering at the Brno University of Technology impressed the jury with his proposal for a spiritual center consisting of a church, a multifunctional hall, a rectory, and a café for the housing estate quarter of Líšeň in Brno.

"We were intrigued by the fact that he considered the object on many levels. Whether it was the relationship to the surrounding landscape and housing development, functionality, or the play with the horizontal rectangular line of the community center on the ground floor in contrast to the vertical organic curve of the church building," commented Allies on the proposal.

The winner of the Kaplicky Internship is selected as part of a competition for architectural works on a free theme, which final-year students from selected architectural and construction faculties can participate in. Allies and Morrison are one of the notable studios that are currently significantly contributing to shaping the architectural face of London. Significant projects by Allies and Morrison include, for example, the urban plan for the 2012 Summer Olympics complex in London and the redevelopment of the extensive London's King's Cross district.