Benjamin Fragner received the Award of the Ministry of Culture for his contribution in the field of architecture

Benjamin Fragner received the award from the Minister of Culture Lubomír Zaorálek at the award ceremony of the State Prizes and Awards of the Ministry of Culture on 24 October at the New Stage of the National Theatre. Benjamin Fragner said in his acceptance speech that he appreciated the award immensely and added that he understood it as support for a certain tendency to look at architecture more broadly than just from the usual angle. He is interested in the industrial heritage as a cultural phenomenon that we are not familiar with and that has a much wider context than architecture, yet it is fundamental to the way we think about the environment.

Benjamin Fragner is interested in the history of technology and the theory of architecture and urbanism. As part of his work at the Research Centre of Industrial Heritage at the Department of Theory and History of Architecture, FA CTU, he explores the possibilities of saving industrial monuments and their further use, where he researches, saves and reuses technical monuments, industrial buildings and sites.

The State Prizes are awarded for literature and translation, while the Ministry of Culture Prizes are awarded for contributions in the fields of theatre, music, visual arts and architecture, and for contributions in the fields of cinema and audiovisual. This year's prizes were awarded to a total of eight personalities, including Miloslav Topinka, who won the prize for literature, translator Alena Morávková, artist Adéla Matasová and screenwriter, actor and writer Zdeněk Svěrák. The award for contribution to cinematography and audiovisual arts was given in memoriam to filmmaker Ester Krumbachová. The prizes are always awarded on the occasion of the national holiday on 28 October.