The stamp with Jan Kaplický will kick off a series dedicated to design

Prague - The new edition of occasional postage stamps will be dedicated to Czech design. The first one will be released on April 4 and is dedicated to architect Jan Kaplický. It features a reminder of the unrealized design of the new National Library building in Prague in Letná. The graphic design of the stamp was created by Alan Záruba, who used a motif taken from leaflets that supported the construction of the building. The stamp will be presented on Tuesday at 3:00 PM at the National Library.

Kaplický was a visionary of modern architecture, having lived in Britain since his emigration in 1968. He co-founded the architectural studio Future Systems. He was awarded the Stirling Prize for the Lord's Media Centre at the London cricket stadium, a prestigious British architecture award.

In his homeland, he only gained recognition after winning the international competition for the new National Library building, when he was already 70 years old. Following the intervention of then-President Václav Klaus, politicians began to speak out against the design of the library as conceived by the progressive and very unconventional Kaplický, leading to the failure of the entire project to construct a new building.

The competition in which Kaplický's project was selected was criticized mainly by architects because the winning project did not comply with the competition brief. During the competition, the National Library changed the conditions — stating that it could not imagine safely storing thousands of volumes of books underground, as Kaplický had proposed. The complaint from the third-place architects was recognized by the court, and the library had to pay the studio HXH architekti the difference in the fee they would have received if the client had disqualified the winning proposal.

In the end, the National Library decided to address its long-term space issues by renovating its existing buildings. However, recently the library's management has once again inclined towards the construction of a new building, arguing that using storage facilities on the outskirts of Prague is not practical for operations and damages the books themselves. There has even been talk of possibly utilizing Kaplický's project; however, it is now 12 years old, and it is difficult to realize such a complex construction without its author.

Until the end of his life, Kaplický believed that the library would be built. "This may be the most significant moment of my life. ... It is an incredible honor to achieve something like this here," said the visibly moved architect when he was introduced in Prague as the winner of the competition. He did not live to see the realization of any other building he designed for Czech cities. He died suddenly in January 2009, on the day his wife gave birth to their daughter.