Kaplický's inspiration JBL speakers

JBL is an American company founded in 1946 by James Bullough Lansing and is engaged in the production of high-quality sound equipment. On Tuesday, July 17, 2007, a spokesman for the company announced that Kaplický's winning design for the Prague library (last month, it received the highest award AJ/Bovis Awards in competition against the proposals of David Chipperfield and Norman Foster) displays “an astonishing resemblance to some of their products”. He primarily referred to the shape, where a spherical form grows out of a square base. The speakers named Creature II were designed by the company in 2000 and have been successfully sold worldwide since 2002. The JBL spokesperson further stated: “the idea of our designer was a bubble that settled on the writing desk and then hatched into a home space creature”. In contrast, according to Kaplický, the national library project was inspired by marine fauna and continues to cause quite a stir in the Czech Republic. Kaplický has not yet commented on JBL's accusation (he has regarding Brain Slugs from Futurama). Perhaps in the end, both sides will come to an agreement, and JBL will also offer speakers in champagne color.
By the way, these speakers are also in the London office of John Pawson. Considering his work, however, there is no risk that he would be inspired by them for any of his designs. Link>