Kateřina Handlová. Photo: Štěpán Lohr.
The design of the Interior of the Year award is created by a different designer each year. Following in the footsteps of previous designers—including Rony Plesl, Václav Mlynář, Jakub Pollág, and Boris Klimek—Kateřina Handlová, art director at the Rückl glassworks, has taken on this task. She has created two outstanding collections for Rückl—HERO.INE and Spirit—and is also the designer behind successful lighting fixtures for the BOMMA glassworks. In the past, she has also worked for Lasvit in Dubai and the Swarovski brand in Innsbruck.
Left: Kateřina Handlová. Photo: Jan Zima. Right: The Gentle decanter from the Spirit collection.
“Kateřina Handlová seeks the roots of her creativity primarily outside the realm of glass and makes no secret of her fascination with haute couture. She juxtaposes glass with materials such as leather, rope, or even porcelain. The design of the Interior of the Year award is always a kind of materialized metaphor for interior design. In the case of this year’s award design, we can certainly look forward to a refreshing wave of originality,” says Petr Tschakert, founder and director of the competition.
The ninth edition will also feature a Public Vote category. Among the most exciting categories, however, is Private Interior – Low-Cost Housing, which serves as a source of ideas and inspiration for the general public, especially given the current period of significant economic turbulence.
The winners will be selected by an international jury of experts led by the rector emeritus of the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, architect and designer Prof. Acad. Arch. Jiří Pelcl, Dr. h.c.
In addition to several Czech experts, the winners will be selected by Spanish architect José Toral, Danish architect Rasmus Kruse Jensen, Italian architect Daniela Colli, Greek interior designer Vangelis Bonios, and many others.
Alongside architects and interior designers, the jury will also include Czech figures with exceptional achievements in the field of visual culture. The jury’s interdisciplinary diversity is intentional. The aim is to ensure that the results more fully reflect interior design as a multidisciplinary field, rather than merely an architectural discipline.
Winner of the Public Interior II category: SOM STORE, Bratislava. Photo: D415.studio.
