Kaplický, Jan

Kaplický, Jan

(1937–2009)Czech architect who was the leading force behind the innovative design office Future Systems. Best known for the futuristic Selfridges Building in Birmingham, England, which won seven awards including the RIBA Award for Architecture 2004, and the Media Centre at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London, England. In 2007, he won the international architectural competition for the new building of the National Library of the Czech Republic in Prague, a project that was subsequently cancelled due to criticism of the design. With the office of Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers (1971–1973), London, he developed the competition-winning design for the Centre Georges Pompidou (1977) in Paris. France. He developed an architectural style that combined organic forms with high-tech futurism. Among the drawings he made were structures orbiting the earth built by robots, weekend houses resembling survival capsules that could be transported by helicopter, and home interiors that could be manipulated.