The State Award for Architecture was received by Alena Šrámková

photo: Jan Kuděj

Prague - The laureate of this year's State Prize for Literature is writer Antonín Bajaja. He earned the award for the novel Na krásné modré Dřevnici. For his lifetime work today evening, the State Prize for Translational Work was awarded to sinologist Oldřich Král. The Ministry of Culture also awarded prizes for theatre to Karel Kraus, for music to Ilja Hurník, for visual arts to František Skála, and for architecture to Alena Šrámková.
The awards were presented to the six laureates by Minister of Culture Jiří Besser at a festive evening in the Prague Trade Fair Palace. State Cultural Awards are presented on the occasion of the state holiday on October 28. Each of the laureates receives 300,000 crowns.
Eighty-one-year-old Alena Šrámková is one of the most unassuming personalities in Czech architecture. Since the 1970s, she has realized a number of interesting projects, characterized mainly by sobriety and minimalism. Among the most famous of them are the famous postmodern ČKD building in Prague at Můstek and the arrivals hall of the Main Railway Station.
Jury member Irena Fialová lamented that the architectural community is still little aware that a separate prize for architects is awarded. Until 2009, when it was awarded for the first time, architects were honored within the framework of visual arts categories. Therefore, there were significantly fewer nominations than in other categories. This year there were four, whereas there were about 30 nominations for literary awards.
Last year, the State Prize for Literature was awarded to writer Zdeněk Rotrekl and for translation to Miroslav Jindra. Last year, Ivan Vyskočil received the award for contributions in the field of theatre, Milan Slavický for musical creation, and Vladimír Kopecký for visual arts. The first holder of the architecture award last year was Eva Jiřičná.