The exhibition presents Ještěd and other works by its author

PRAGUE - The presentation of the well-known and award-winning television transmitter with a hotel on Ještěd, along with other works by its author Karel Hubáček, is part of an exhibition that started today at the Jaroslav Fragner Gallery in Prague. During the opening, one of the most significant Czech architects, who has influenced several generations of other creators, received a Tribute from the Czech Chamber of Architects for the year 2005. Hubáček's Ještěd has belonged to national cultural monuments as the only modern building since last autumn and is aspiring to be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Ještěd, due to its elegance and practical use of modern technologies, received the Perret Prize awarded by the International Union of Architects in 1969. The jury stated at the time that the work stands out for its clarity and the happy harmony with which it connects to the surrounding landscape. Experts and laypeople alike are captivated to this day by the way the building completes the silhouette of the 1,012-meter-high Ještěd mountain. The journal Architect named the hotel as the Building of the Century based on a survey among domestic experts.
The first part of the exhibition about Ještěd was prepared by photographer Jiří Jiroutek, who compiled a unique photographic publication titled The Phenomenon of Ještěd. Even before that, he prepared a calendar with photographs of the transmitter commissioned by the Liberec City Hall, which aimed to highlight the uniqueness of Ještěd and the fact that the building is deteriorating and needs a major refurbishment.
For the exhibition, Jiroutek also gathered other unique items related to the building. This mainly includes the original model of Ještěd. Restored café furniture designed by architect Otakar Binara will also be exhibited, of which only a few pieces remain. Visitors will also see designs of glass sculptures by Stanislav Libenský and the original dining service and drinkware loaned by glassmaker Karel Wunsch, who designed the set intended solely for Ještěd. These items are unique because the Ještěd equipment was stolen a few weeks after the hotel and restaurant opened. Ještěd was built between 1966 and 1973.
The exhibition also includes films documenting the creation of the unique building, which is a rotational hyperboloid in terms of geometric shape. The curator of the second part of the exhibition, which maps the other works of architect Hubáček, is Petr Kratochvíl. He also prepared a catalog published by the Czech Chamber of Architects.
The exhibition is expected to be reprised in London in 2008, where an exhibition on architecture behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War is being prepared. Jiroutek is planning additional stops for the exhibition in Germany and Austria.
This year, eighty-two-year-old Hubáček founded the Liberec association of architects SIAL in 1968, which applies technical innovations, new materials, and constructions as an important component of architectural expression. He was also the initiator of establishing the Faculty of Architecture at the Technical University of Liberec.

Photo: Petr Jedinák (www.jedinak.cz)