National Library to fight for blob in court

Prague - Despite the fact the National Library, so called "blob", will not be constructed by the end of this government´s tenure, London-based Czech-born architect Jan Kaplický will be reimbursed. In fact, not once but twice. This is guaranteed by the contract of the international architectural competition Kaplický won two years ago. The Ministry of Culture is prepared to pay this ´double´ compensation, Aktuálně.cz was assured by the ministry's spokesman Jan Cieslar. Two awards Last year in March, Kaplický was awarded EUR 160,000 for the winning design in a competition organized and overseen by an internaitonal body of architects. Next March, he is going to get the same sum again. "On 2 March 2009 it will be two years since the competition results were first announced. If the winning project is not realized by that time, the... [read full story]