Prague’s Cultural Committee has revived the issue of the Octopus, a design by the Czech architect Jan Kaplický for the proposed new national library that was supposed to be built on the Letná plain in Prague 7. Also known as ‘The Blob’, the design somehow became a political issue that the former Czech president Vacláv Klaus latched onto, making it a point of honor to block its approval. Have things changed enough yet to allow a state building to be the subject of artistic architecture?
“We wanted to re-open discussion about returning the library as designed by Jan Kaplický to the location where it was originally envisioned,” Jan Wolf, the city councilor in charge of cultural issues, told iDNES.cz. He’s ordered that a feasibility study be carried out on the matter by September, including the cost and proposed changes. The most important of these is that the building should be used for more functions, including as a gallery and space for a theater. But with local elections coming up in the fall, it’s possible that Kaplicky’s design is simply being used again as a political football.
