Czech architect firm “ADR” has been awarded the 2019 International Olympic Committee (IOC) award for sustainable architecture.

ADR has for many years worked for the Czech House projects in the Olympic Games host cities and during the Olympic Festivals in the Czech Republic. In their sports facilities, they combine beauty, functionality, environment and sustainability with respect to the local landscape.

The Czech Olympic Committee has been cooperating with ADR since 2012. “Sustainability is a long-term goal for us,” said Jiří Kejval, President of the Czech Olympic Committee. “In addition to the Czech Houses, we have also worked with ADR for the Olympic Festivals, which are now being emulated around the world.”

“If the Olympic Games had taken place this year, we would have seen Festivals in 18 locations,” added Kejval. “We view sustainability from a number of perspectives. The protection of the environment is obviously important and is integral to the Olympic Movement, but we also pay attention to economic and social sustainability – the needs of people.”

ADR founders Petr Kolář and Aleš Lapka have received the award. “When working on designs, there is always a clear requirement: it must work,” said Kolář.

The Czech Houses at the Olympic Games London 2012 and PyeongChang 2018 resulted to be ranked as the best national houses according to several surveys conducted by prestigious international media outlets.

“It is nice to know that athletes from other nations also liked to visit the Czech House. We had an unbelievable atmosphere at our house,” added Kolář. “This award really belongs to thousands of people. It is the same as when you glue together a broken plate. If you fail to find a single shard then it will be impossible to put together. I am very happy that our eight years of work has been etched into people’s memory.”

An integral part of the Czech House and Olympic Festivals is the Czech Television studio. Director-General of Czech Television Petr Dvořák congratulated indeed with the ADR founders. “For me, the letter A stands for the ambition to do things a bit differently. D stands for detail – to devise and work things out so that they exhibit not just beauty, but are also functional. And the R represents the Czech word “radost” (joy in English) of the enthusiastic people,” said Dvořák. “I am very glad that we were able to work together on several occasion.”

The IOC trophy has been presented since 1985, and every year it has a different theme. It is not the first time that the Czech Republic is amongst the recipients of the award: in 2010 it was presented to ice-hockey player Jaromír Jágr for inspiring young people, a year later it was received by Tomáš Slavata with the theme of sport and social responsibility; in 2012 Jaroslav Pollert snr. won it for sport and sustainable development; in 2014 Rostislav Švácha succeeded in the category sport and art; in 2015 Jaroslav Pollert jnr. was rewarded for sport and innovation.; in 2018 Ombudsman of the Czech Olympic Committee Alexander Károlyi was presented the prize for sport and humanity.

More information can be found here