Historian of architecture Zdeněk Lukeš will celebrate his seventy years

Prague - Architect, architecture historian, educator, and journalist Zdeněk Lukeš, who will celebrate his seventieth birthday on March 2, is one of the most renowned and cited experts in the field. He is the author or co-author of many publications, catalogs, exhibitions, and other events, such as educational walks for the public focused on architecture. He has published over 1500 professional articles, often on modern architecture.

A native of Prague, he comes from an artistic family; his parents were sculptors Vladimír Kýr and Jaroslava Lukešová. He studied architecture at the Czech Technical University. After his military service, he joined the architecture archive of the National Technical Museum in Prague, where he began focusing on architecture from the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. There, he and his colleague Jan Svoboda compiled a large card index of Prague's modern architecture. After November 1989, he worked in the office of President Václav Havel and collaborated on the restoration of Prague Castle.

In 1995, he began working as an assistant professor at the Prague Arts and Crafts University (UMPRUM), from where he moved to the Faculty of Architecture at the Technical University in Liberec, where he also served as dean. In 2004, he returned to Prague as an educator and began teaching at the Prague branch of New York University.

Lukeš is also a member of several societies and has served or is serving on many advisory bodies (e.g., the National Museum, the Architects' Association, or the Mayor of Prague). Among other things, he is also a founding member of the Center for the Restoration and Preservation of Architecture (CORA) and one of the ambassadors of the Czech National Trust, which aims to preserve cultural and natural heritage. He is a holder of Slovenia's state award of the Medal for Merit, which was granted to him by President Borut Pahor.