Future Systems and Kaplicky win £60m scheme
Avant-garde British architect Future Sytems, led by Czech-born Jan Kaplicky, has won an international architectural competition for the £60m National Library of the Czech Republic in Prague.
Future Sytems, together with Arup as structural and services engineer, beat 354 other entries to win the first prize of Euro 160,000. In their design, a biomorphic form like a sea creature is combined with a fully automated retrieval system that can deliver a book to its reader within five minutes.
Second prize of Euro 120,000 was won by the one-year-old firm Carmody Groarke of London.
