CHYBIK + KRISTOF Architects and Urban Designers, a young Czech architecture practice, have won Architectural Record’s 2019 Design Vanguard Prize. Spotlighting the promising practice as a “future leader of architecture,” the prize affirms CHYBIK + KRISTOF to be at the forefront of their field, as the jury looks to emerging, international firms forging new ways of approaching built environments.
CHYBIK + KRISTOF, which currently operates with 50+ international team members across offices in Prague, Brno, and Bratislava, is featured in the June 2019 issue of Architectural Record. The in-depth feature will present their work, and chart their growth from 2010 when the practice was founded by Ondřej Chybík and Michal Krištof.
An eagerly anticipated project by CHYBIK + KRISTOF is the The Lahofer Winery, set to open in Spring 2020. The versatile winemaking facility features a visitor center, a tasting room and an amphitheater that rests tactfully on the structure’s undulant roof. Employing architectural elements to embed the building in the surrounding Moravian landscape, the winery interacts as opposed to dominates the environment, as a colonnade of arches align with the vineyard rows, and the amphitheater’s incline mimics the surrounding slopes. The architects are also known for designing the Czech Pavilion at the 2015 Expo in Milan, utilizing modular architecture, which can be again reassembled in a different location, as well as the Gallery of Furniture in Brno and its striking plastic chair facade. Other notable recent projects include the Urban Infill Lofts, a revitalizing Brno’s post-industrial district, and the Czech Forestry Headquarters, envisioning the forest as an intimate, transparent workplace.
Past winners of the Design Vanguard Prize include: Sou Fujimoto, Bjarke Ingels Group, Office Kersten Geers David Van Severen, and Smiljan Radić. The winners leave a legacy of actively realizing conceptual thinking, and being proponents of new practices and dialogues in the architectural field. Dedicated to documenting architectural history, the renowned publication Architectural Record has been in print for 125 years, and awards an annual prize to young, game-changing architects from 2000 on.