Ivo Oberstein has died
On January 6, 2024, the prominent Czech architect, urban planner, and educator Ivo Oberstein passed away. Among his significant projects are solutions for the residential areas of Jihozápadní Město in Prague 13 – Nové Butovice, Lužiny, Stodůlky, and the Central Park. He was one of the founding members of the Czech Chamber of Architects (authorization number 00184).
Doc. Ing. arch. Ivo Oberstein, CSc. (* May 18, 1935, Zdice), graduated from the Department of Urbanism at the Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering at ČVUT in Prague in 1959. After gaining experience in Karlovy Vary (1959–1961), he began working at the Office of the Chief Architect of the City of Prague, where he contributed to projects related to conceptual development until 1968. In 1967, his team won the 2nd prize in a competition for the design of the urban district of Jižní Město. However, among his most important achievements was winning the competition for the development of Jihozápadní Město in Prague 13 – residential neighborhoods for up to 80,000 inhabitants – Stodůlky, Lužiny, and Nové Butovice. In the competition proposal, he and his colleagues also defined a large Central Park. Jihozápadní Město was his passion. Throughout his life, he consulted with the municipality on its gradual development and expressed his views on, for example, the planned construction of disproportionately large skyscrapers. “The design of the Top Tower skyscraper complex does not respect the urban, spatial, and compositional values of the concept of Nové Butovice. The residential areas to the west of Bucharova Street are not development areas, but stabilized, completed areas,” he wrote in his statement in December 2023.
Ivo Oberstein and his colleagues presented a new approach to the individual districts near Jihozápadní Město, which were urbanistically and functionally differentiated. Within the expansive residential blocks with park landscaping, schools, kindergartens, playgrounds, and services were constructed, creating pleasant public spaces. The proposal for the construction solution differed fundamentally from the then conception of panel housing estates. “I hated panel buildings, but my team and I did our utmost to humanize and solve the public environment of the streets, squares, and spaces within the blocks… we saw it as a tremendous challenge; we visited other construction sites, observed technology that was fast but quite rough in construction. To the greatest extent, we wanted to avoid the mistakes we saw there. We took great pleasure in everything we managed to solve better – even if it was sometimes just seemingly trivial details,” he said in one of his interviews in 2016.
From 1976 until 1989, he led Atelier 7 at the Project Institute for the Construction of the Capital City of Prague, where about 75 specialists worked. From 1990 to 1994, he served as chief architect at the Office of the Chief Architect of the City of Prague. Under his leadership, work began, among other things, on a new Urban Plan for Prague and urban studies for the Prague Monument Reserve, Smíchov, or the Vltava master plan. From 1999 to 2005, he worked on the urban design of Sluneční náměstí and the town hall of Prague 13. In the 1980s and then from 1994 to 2007, he was a scientific and teaching staff member at the Faculty of Architecture at ČVUT in Prague. In 2013, he received the Award of the Architects' Association for Lifetime Achievement, and in 2018, the Jože Plečnik Award for Lifetime Contribution to Architecture. In 2023, he was nominated by the Architects' Association for the Patrick Abercrombie Award for Urban Planning and UIA Design (International Union of Architects).
Doc. Ing. arch. Ivo Oberstein, CSc. (* May 18, 1935, Zdice), graduated from the Department of Urbanism at the Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering at ČVUT in Prague in 1959. After gaining experience in Karlovy Vary (1959–1961), he began working at the Office of the Chief Architect of the City of Prague, where he contributed to projects related to conceptual development until 1968. In 1967, his team won the 2nd prize in a competition for the design of the urban district of Jižní Město. However, among his most important achievements was winning the competition for the development of Jihozápadní Město in Prague 13 – residential neighborhoods for up to 80,000 inhabitants – Stodůlky, Lužiny, and Nové Butovice. In the competition proposal, he and his colleagues also defined a large Central Park. Jihozápadní Město was his passion. Throughout his life, he consulted with the municipality on its gradual development and expressed his views on, for example, the planned construction of disproportionately large skyscrapers. “The design of the Top Tower skyscraper complex does not respect the urban, spatial, and compositional values of the concept of Nové Butovice. The residential areas to the west of Bucharova Street are not development areas, but stabilized, completed areas,” he wrote in his statement in December 2023.
Ivo Oberstein and his colleagues presented a new approach to the individual districts near Jihozápadní Město, which were urbanistically and functionally differentiated. Within the expansive residential blocks with park landscaping, schools, kindergartens, playgrounds, and services were constructed, creating pleasant public spaces. The proposal for the construction solution differed fundamentally from the then conception of panel housing estates. “I hated panel buildings, but my team and I did our utmost to humanize and solve the public environment of the streets, squares, and spaces within the blocks… we saw it as a tremendous challenge; we visited other construction sites, observed technology that was fast but quite rough in construction. To the greatest extent, we wanted to avoid the mistakes we saw there. We took great pleasure in everything we managed to solve better – even if it was sometimes just seemingly trivial details,” he said in one of his interviews in 2016.
From 1976 until 1989, he led Atelier 7 at the Project Institute for the Construction of the Capital City of Prague, where about 75 specialists worked. From 1990 to 1994, he served as chief architect at the Office of the Chief Architect of the City of Prague. Under his leadership, work began, among other things, on a new Urban Plan for Prague and urban studies for the Prague Monument Reserve, Smíchov, or the Vltava master plan. From 1999 to 2005, he worked on the urban design of Sluneční náměstí and the town hall of Prague 13. In the 1980s and then from 1994 to 2007, he was a scientific and teaching staff member at the Faculty of Architecture at ČVUT in Prague. In 2013, he received the Award of the Architects' Association for Lifetime Achievement, and in 2018, the Jože Plečnik Award for Lifetime Contribution to Architecture. In 2023, he was nominated by the Architects' Association for the Patrick Abercrombie Award for Urban Planning and UIA Design (International Union of Architects).
The English translation is powered by AI tool. Switch to Czech to view the original text source.
0 comments
add comment
