The Trade Fair Palace represents the architect Karel Prager

Prague - The work of one of the most prominent creators of Czech architecture in the second half of the 20th century, Karel Prager (1923 to 2001), will be presented from Friday in an exhibition at the Trade Fair Palace. The architect, builder, and visionary known for the buildings of the former Federal Assembly and the New Stage in Prague is portrayed as such, as the title of the exhibition suggests. Visitors can also get acquainted with many unrealized designs and studies that looked into the future.
    Prager belongs to the creators whose work is perceived ambivalently; some revere it while others reject it. The Federal Assembly building, where Prager came up with the bold solution of a "house on a house," is generally not well-liked, possibly due to its original purpose. However, experts assign qualities comparable to the world's top of its time to it.
    "This approach may be generational; his work is admired primarily by the young, but also due to ignorance: since the early 1970s, Prager belonged to architects about whom it was not allowed to write," said the exhibition author Radomíra Sedláková from the National Gallery in Prague to journalists today. In 1984, after the completion of the New Stage, the editorial office of the magazine Czechoslovak Architect had to request the then-ruling structures to mention Prager's name, Sedláková noted.
    Prager's first buildings date back to the 1950s; he co-authored residential buildings in Ostrava Poruba. His most significant work is mainly associated with the 1960s. "For Karel Prager, architecture always meant a constructed building – to achieve this goal, he was able to do a lot. Not only to design an interesting project but also to come up with a new structure, a new type of building element, and, when necessary, to advocate for its production," the exhibition author recalled.
    This was the case when constructing the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, where lightweight hanging panels of Czech production first appeared. According to Sedláková, Prager's admiration for Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is unmistakable in this building, particularly his thesis that less is more, but above all his understanding of the facade as a light shell draped over the structure. Prager also applied this principle in constructing the studios at the Emmaus Monastery or the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics in Troja; however, these complexes of buildings were never fully completed.
    Prager also focused on the reconstruction of historical buildings; according to his design, the Cubist House at the Black Madonna and the Rudolfinum were restored – thanks to Prager's project, there is now also a gallery in the seat of the Czech Philharmonic, as the original authors envisioned.
    Prager himself stated that he participated in about 150 competitions. Many projects intended primarily for Prague were never realized. Among them was an urban study of the Superstructure over Košíře, where experimental construction of a "city above the city" was to be applied in a very difficult-to-develop area.
    Until his death, Karel Prager led the Gama studio, which he co-founded in 1967. Dozens of architects passed through it, including the likes of Petr Bílek, Vlad Milunič, or Kamil Mrva.