The suspension of glass panels on the technical library will change

Prague - The National Technical Library (NTK) has reached an agreement with Sekyra Group on the method by which the suspension of the library's glass façade in Prague's Dejvice will be repaired. Two of the glass elements fell off the building in February 2017. Due to unsuccessful negotiations for remedying the defect, the library filed a lawsuit against Sekyra Group at the beginning of the year. NTK now agrees to suspend the court proceedings to allow further negotiations on the repair, spokesman Milan Šindelář informed today.

The NTK building, which was constructed ten years ago, is covered externally with 4,500 glass panels. The building has received several architectural awards.

The new suspension of all glass elements will be modified, according to Šindelář, to ensure increased durability and safety, fully in accordance with current construction and safety regulations.

Due to unsuccessful negotiations for remedying the defect, the library filed a lawsuit against Sekyra Group at the beginning of this year. NTK now agrees to suspend the court proceedings to allow time to discuss and finalize an agreement on the façade repair, Šindelář stated. The financing of the repair will also be a subject of negotiations.

According to an expert report from the Klokner Institute of the Czech Technical University in Prague, the cause of the loosening of the two glass elements was extreme stress on the glass around the load point, caused by improper anchoring of the glass components, NTK stated in January this year. The executive director of Sekyra Group, Leoš Anderle, in response to the library's claims told ČTK that it was an isolated incident, the cause of which could not be determined. The director also pointed out that the library had not carried out regular maintenance and servicing of the façade.

The National Technical Library is the largest and oldest library of technical literature in the Czech Republic. Its history dates back to 1718, and it currently has a capacity of over 1.5 million volumes. The building in the Dejvice campus has been serving primarily students of surrounding universities since 2009. It provides electronically around 18,000 professional journals in engineering, natural sciences, and medicine, along with other services to students, educators, and researchers across the country.

The NTK building was constructed according to the project by the architectural studio Projektil in the university campus in Prague 6. Construction work on the building began in the autumn of 2006, with the rough construction completed in December of the following year. The library was fully accessible to the public in September 2009.

The building has received numerous awards. In 2010, it won the Grand Prix of Architects - National Award for Architecture. The professional jury praised the clarity of its concept, economy and simplicity of expression, and elegant solutions.