Heatherwick Studio to Host Winner of the Fifth Kaplicky Internship

The Bakala Foundation has launched the fifth annual Kaplicky Internship Architectural Competition to support the development of young, talented architects from the Czech Republic. This year’s winner will have the opportunity to complete a three-month internship at Heatherwick Studio in London, one of the world’s most prominent architectural studios. The competition is open to individuals studying architecture at Czech universities, and for the first time, new graduates will also be eligible to apply. The competition is named in honor of Jan Kaplický, a famous Czech architect, and is organized by the Bakala Foundation in collaboration with the London Design Museum and the Kaplicky Centre Foundation.

Internship at Heatherwick Studio For three months, the winner of this year’s Kaplicky Internship will become part of a team of more than 200 people working at Heatherwick Studio, established in London by British designer Thomas Heatherwick. The studio brings together architecture, design, and urban planning and describes itself as being characterized by its “ingenuity, inventiveness and originality”. Vessel, in New York City, is one of the studio’s best-known recent architectural projects. It consists of intertwined staircases and opened to the public this March. Another Heatherwick Studio building, the “fuzzy” British Pavilion built for the Shanghai World Expo in 2010, became the most popular British tourist attraction at the time of its construction. The studio’s most famous design projects include the redesign of London’s double-decker buses and the Olympic Cauldron built for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. The studio is currently working on 30 projects in ten countries spanning four continents, focusing mainly on projects that have a positive social impact. Submit Your Student Project The Kaplicky Internship is designed for novice architects who are eager to gain new experiences and inspiration, and who want to collaborate with the world’s leading architects. The competition is open to students completing the final year of their bachelor’s degrees, students currently working on their master’s degrees, and, for the first time, students who have completed their degrees at a Czech university within the last year. There is no predefined theme and students may submit the final projects from their studies. The deadline for submission is June 30, 2019. The winner of the competition will be selected by a panel of experts and announced on October 24, 2019 at the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, as part of an event that will include a lecture given by Mat Cash, partner and group leader at Heatherwick Studio. Four talented young architects from Czech universities have previously completed internships at prestigious studios in London. They have worked for Eva Jiricna Architects, Zaha Hadid Architects, Allies and Morrison, and Adjaye Associates, where last year’s winner, Petr Kousal, was hired after the completion of his internship. Click here for more information about the competition, including the terms and conditions and winners from previous years. Photo: Brisa Chander