The Chamber of Architects thwarted the architectural competition in Boskovice

The Czech Chamber of Architects, which is supposed to support architectural competitions in our territory, unprecedentedly prevented the holding of an architectural competition for a sports hall in the town of Boskovice. Its representatives, according to their legal right and after the unfortunate experiences of many towns, decided to organize an architectural competition without the supervision of the CKA. The aim was to ensure the best possible architectural design and to give young architects a chance. A large number of teams and individual architects of renowned names applied for this promising competition.

Without anyone requesting it, the Chamber declared the competition irregular. And that for two reasons:

1. Incompetent jury
2. Low prizes

The jury consisted of the following members:

• Prof. PhDr. Rostislav Švácha, CSc.
• Prof. Ing. arch. Mojmír Kyselka, CSc.
• MgA. Ing. arch. Petr Šmídek, Ph.D.
• Ing. arch. Mgr. art. Ján Pernecký
   
• Prof. Ing. arch. Zdeněk Fránek, architect of the town of Boskovice
• Ing. Radek Mazáč, 2nd Deputy Mayor
• Ing. arch. Petr Zouhar, head of the city development and investment department

The prizes in the competition were:

• 1st prize 250,000 CZK
• 2nd prize 180,000 CZK
• 3rd prize 150,000 CZK

The other 2 participants who would not receive a prize were to be awarded an amount of 100,000 CZK each.

It is hard to imagine a more specialized jury. The prizes are rather above average compared to competitions under the supervision of the CKA.

In the final phase of the ongoing competition, when various factions of the CKA tried to deter architects and jurors from participating in the competition with threats, letters with a red stripe were sent to all competitors from The Department of Prevention of Disciplinary Offenses of the CKA. After some teams submitted their designs and after attempts to negotiate with the chamber through its presidency, the CKA sent a denunciation to the Office for the Protection of Competition about the holding of an irregular competition. This definitively thwarted the competition, as preparations for this long-planned investment must continue. Following this highly publicized case, many towns and individual architects expressed solidarity by providing Boskovice representatives with guidance on how to organize such a competition or commission without the possibility of CKA intervention.