Founded in 2002 by Jakub Berdych and Maxim Velcovsky, Qubus is Prague's must-visit design shop, offering the owners' designs as well as pieces by fellow Eastern Europeans. The duo—who met as students at the High School of Applied Arts and Glassmaking in Zelezny Brod—also put on special exhibits like "Ornament and Crime," and "Kafkanistan White." Their shop is in the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, a five-year-old museum in a happening corner of Prague conveniently close to the city center.
Qubus's online shop is scheduled to debut soon.
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Above: A Qubus window-front installation in a liquor store.
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Above: Like the museum that it's part of, the Qubus shop presents a revolving array of Czech and international art and design.
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Above: Prisoner's Set, a porcelain reinvention of the basics by Jakup Berdych.
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Above: Maxim Velcovsky's Matroska Set, a glass play on the stacking matryoshka doll.
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Above: Designed by Vaclav Rezac, Braille glasses are made in a traditional Czech glass factory and decorated with Braille symbols (Rezec's goal is to "interconnect the world of the blind with the world of the sighted"). Note the off-kilter positioning of the stem.
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Above: Barrock, a standing candle by Jakub Berdych.
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Jakub Berdych's handblown glass Saturn pitcher and ringed glasses, available from Generate; $160 for the set.
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Above: Cross vases by Jakub Berdych.
Been to Prague lately? Please fill us in on your design discoveries—workshops, galleries, hotels, and restaurants included.
