Miroslav Řepa

Miroslav Řepa graduated from the Real Gymnasium in Pardubice, where he completed his high school diploma with honors in 1949. From 1949 to 1953, he studied at the Czech Technical University in Prague in the Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering. In 1954, he was accepted to the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague into the school of Professor Jaroslav Fragner. He completed his training at the Academy in 1958 with an honors year. During his studies at AVU, he successfully collaborated on architectural competitions with Professor Fragner, architect Jiří Gočár, and architect Jiří Kroha.
After finishing his studies, he briefly collaborated with his father, academic architect Karel Řepa. He first gained experience as a designer at the Military Project Institute in Pardubice and later at the Regional Project Institute in then Gottwaldov, where he worked until 1961. In 1965, he won, together with architect Vladimír Pýcha, the competition for the Czechoslovak pavilion at the World Expo in Montreal. This was followed by the design of the Laterna Magika theater for the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, in 1970 and the role of technical director of the Czechoslovak pavilion at Expo '92 in Seville.
In 1967, he returned from Montreal to Prague. From 1970, he collaborated on the reconstruction of the Smetana Theatre and the National Theatre, and since 1976, he served as an architect in the National Theatre's structure. From 1984 to 1991, he continued with the reconstruction of the Tyl Theatre, now known as the Estates Theatre.
In addition to participating in representing Czechoslovakia at world exhibitions, architect M. Řepa engaged in significant exhibition activities that exceeded the scope of typical architectural exhibitions. In 1993, he was invited by the Administration of Prague Castle to curate an exhibition of J. Plečnik, which was later moved to other European cities (Berlin, Brussels, Paris, Vienna) and overseas (New York, Haifa). Subsequently, he was appointed the chief curator of the unique exhibition "Ten Centuries of Architecture" throughout the Prague Castle complex.
During his active professional career, he published in professional journals such as Czechoslovak Architect, Architecture CR, and organized several expert discussions at the Association of Architects, project institutes, and schools. He lectured on cultural buildings for several semesters at the AAAD (Academy of Art, Architecture, and Design in Prague). He put his experiences from the world exhibitions into a book published in 2005 under the title "Expo from Brussels to Aichi."