The National Award for Architecture was awarded to the Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows in Nesvačilce

Prague – Grand Prix of Architects – The National Award for Architecture was awarded this year to the Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows, which was built in Nesvačilka near Brno according to the design by Jan Říčný. The lifetime achievement award went to architect Martin Rajniš. This was announced by the Union of Architects, which has been organizing the competition since 1993. At the festive announcement in Prague on Monday, awards were also presented to the authors of works in the categories of eco-friendly buildings, family houses, interiors, design, landscape architecture, new builds, and renovations. The expert jury also awarded several honorary prizes.

The unique chapel in Nesvačilka, costing approximately 24 million crowns, was largely funded by the faithful and was consecrated last year. The cylindrical, 25-meter-high wooden structure with an oval floor plan catches the eye from afar. The main construction consists of seven fir beams that have been shaped only with axes. They are meant to refer to the seven sorrows of the Virgin Mary. An eighth beam, installed crosswise, completes the image of the cross. Dozens of small windows symbolize tears. The investor of the building, which combined medieval techniques with modern technological possibilities, was the Roman Catholic Parish of Moutnice, with the idea and construction led by the parish priest René Václav Strouhal.

"Mary suffers and cries for us, connecting us with God while simultaneously offering her embrace. The building rises with its white spire in the vast landscape among the fields like a lighthouse of hope and its execution refers to history while not neglecting the present. We aim to enrich the local landscape with our building, as our ancestors did," stated the author of the award-winning project, Jan Říčný, during the chapel's consecration last year.

Eighty-one-year-old Rajniš is a prominent figure in Czech architecture. He is a co-author of the Máj department store in Prague, and in the 1990s he contributed to the urban redevelopment of the Anděl district in Smíchov. Among his other significant buildings are the Czech post office on Sněžka, several observation towers, and the airship Gulliver on the roof of the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art. While initially leaning towards functionalist aesthetics and brutalism, after 2000, natural materials, primarily wood, began to play a key role in his work.

This year, 155 projects applied for the Grand Prix of Architects – National Award for Architecture. In the first round of evaluations, the jury selected 50 projects that advanced to the finals, from which the winner was chosen.