Praha Východ — Přezletice

This substantial villa, which was constructed in 1995, is located in a small village just 400 metres from the Prague border and yet only 20 minutes by car from the city centre. A 24 hour Tesco and a Globus are ten minutes away and the new ring road will be just a 500 metre drive, offering superb accessibility both to the airport and anywhere else within the Czech Republic A deceptively sized property, the house offers a total area of 690 m² on three levels. The ground and first floors are designed for living, and the basement for recreation and services.

Ground Floor

Enormous living room with dining area, Large, fully equipped kitchen, Dining room, Entrance hall, WC with basin, Two bedrooms (one of which is currently used as a study), with en suite bathrooms.

First Floor

Master bedroom with an equal sized dressing room and en suite bathroom, 3 further bedrooms, 2 with en suite bathrooms, One more bathroom, Large hall, 2 terraces.

Lower Floor

34 m² swimming pool with power jet, Gymnasium, Sauna, Storage rooms, Workshop, Laundry room, Boiler room, Triple garage.

Outside
4,500 m² garden, comprising lawns, flower beds, rockery, ponds and BBQs, automatic watering, lighting and security system, Electronic entry gates, Gardener’s storage and greenhouse, Ample parking spaces.

The villa is set amidst the most beautiful c. 4,500 m² landscaped garden in the Czech Republic, with floodlighting, over 100 trees and bushes, fish ponds, a bridge, a waterfall, two barbecue areas, three terraces and a pagoda.

Adjacent to the garden is an additional c. 6,500 m² of land, which has been levelled and grassed and could be kept as a meadow or include a tennis court, a second swimming pool, paddock and stables, staff accommodation or additional garaging; it alone would have a value of circa 10 million CZK if it was developed residentially.This outstanding house offers everyone the perfect opportunity to combine its proximity to Prague with all the advantages of breathing the fresh country air, the possibility to have one’s own sports and leisure complex and the benefits of peace and quiet.

Price: 29,500,000 CZK

To arrange a private viewing, please contact Mr. Nigel Mort +420 602 37 00 00 or nigel@capitalproperties.cz

A SPECIAL ADVERTISING FEATURE FOR LIFESTYLES MAGAZINE®

Estate villa with landscaped garden

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Garden...

Estate villa with landscaped garden

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For weekends and holiday getaways, shouldn’t your mountain retreat include the luxury and convenience you demand to make your second home as comfortable as your first? Do you think that this can hardly be combined? The team of Masák & Partner design studio will show you how to realize this dream in your weekend getaway called Šumava Courtyard. All the benefits of your country cottage, and all the comforts you expect.

The architectural design of the Šumava Courtyard (Šumavský dvůr) project has been inspired by the traditional farmhouses in Šumava. The project is constructed of high-quality natural materials typical of this region (stone, solid wood, wood shingles), which play an important role in the implementation and integration of this project. Thanks to the rich experience of the team of authors from the Masák & Partner s.r.o. design studio, this Šumava cottage, which has a classic appearance on the outside, is also the most modern facility of its kind in the mountains. On the outside, Šumava Courtyard is a tastefully designed wooden building, sensitively set in the surrounding picturesque natural landscape, while its interior areas contain luxurious apartments and common areas of the house.

In summer 2008, the construction of the first of the four planned buildings, which should form a natural whole, was started. The first phase of construction should be finished as early as at the end of 2009. The Šumava Courtyard is scheduled to be completely finished by 2012.

During the actual construction process, all owners have the possibility to influence the future appearance of their apartments. However, high-quality materials and furnishings are, of course, offered even in the standard version. Clients are able to choose from the products of companies such as Hansgrohe, Rako, Marazzi, Link, Sapeli and others. The most exacting customers will certainly appreciate the offer of changes, requested by a client and deviating from the standard. With these changes, a client will adapt the apartment to suit exactly their needs down to the smallest detail of the apartment. Custom construction is possible to fit your precise requirements…and lifestyle.

In the building, which is constructed as the first phase of the Šumava Courtyard project, there are a total of 28 mountain apartments with areas ranging from 45 m2 to 144 m2, including a terrace, a balcony or a small front garden. Some selected apartments have a fireplace included in their basic furnishing. A cubicle in the basement and an outdoor parking space belong to each apartment. from the products of companies such as Hansgrohe, Rako,Marazzi, Link, Sapeli and others. The most exacting customers willcertainly appreciate the offer of changes, requested by a client anddeviating from the standard. With these changes, a client will adaptthe apartment to suit exactly their needs down to the smallest detailof the apartment. Custom construction is possible to fit your preciserequirements…and lifestyle.In the building, which is constructed as the first phase ofthe Šumava Courtyard project, there are a total of 28 mountainapartments with areas ranging from 45 m2 to 144 m2, including aterrace, a balcony or a small front garden. Some selected apartmentshave a fireplace included in their basic furnishing. A cubicle in thebasement and an outdoor parking space belong to each apartment. Four indoor parking spaces are also offered. On the premises of the Šumava Courtyard complex, there is a pétanque field and a playground for children. In its vicinity, there is also a multi-functional sports ground and a tennis court.

The building includes a wellness centre with a whirlpool and a sauna, built to be shared by all the apartment owners. There will also be a room for storage of downhill skis, cross-country skis and snowboard gear.

The Šumava Courtyard project consisting of luxurious mountain apartments is found in the municipality of Železná Ruda – Špičák. This attractive mountain locality is situated in the proximity of a downhill course with a view of the peaks of the high mountains of Šumava and it is an ideal place for various activities throughout the year.

The building is situated near the Horizont hotel, right at the downhill course of the Špičák Ski Park, which ranks among the best-rated winter resorts in the Czech Republic. The Ski Park offers more than eight kilometres of downhill courses of various types, including one of the steepest downhill courses in the Czech Republic (Šance). In the vicinity, there is 25 km of other downhill courses. Within an easy reach, at a distance of a mere 10 km, there is Velký Javor (Grosser Arber), the highest mountain of Šumava (1,456 m) on the Bavarian side.

Cross-country skiers will certainly appreciate the 100 km of cross-country ski tracks in the surroundings of Železná Ruda. Both proficient athletes and beginners and children will be able to choose suitable routes here.

However, the region of Železná Ruda is not only a paradise for the fans of winter sports. Due to its highly advantageous position near the border with Germany, it is an excellent place for getting to know the Šumava mountain range and the surroundings of the Bavarian Forest. In addition to a great number of hiking routes, there is also 500 km of biking routes with signs and many other routes suitable for a ride on a bike. In the vicinity, there is a paintball field, a shop renting karts and there are even plans to build an 18-hole golf course.

There is also the Šumava National Park in this place, the largest continuous complex of forests not only in the Czech Republic but also in the entire Central Europe. It includes the most beautiful and valuable parts of Šumava. Along with the Bavarian Forest National Park and the Šumava Natural Preserve, it forms what is referred to as the “Green Roof of Europe”. UNESCO declared this area to be a biospheric preserve in 1990.

The apartments offer a splendid view of the surrounding nature and the mountain peaks, and you can enjoy the spectacular beauty of your second home with the convenience and comfort you expect.

Max Švabinský is among the most influential and interesting personalities in Czech painting in the first half of the 20th century, and not only because of his wide range of work. He moved among the Czech great and good through the immense social upheaval during the forming of the republic and two world wars. And while other painters focused solely on landscapes, Švabinský was prolific in a wider and more varied spectrum of fine art. He was an excellent and renowned painter of both portraits and social scenes, using techniques that included drawing, oil painting, etching, and woodblock printing.

The exquisiteness of his portraiture is apparent from the Round Portrait of his young wife Ela, for which he won the Diplome d’hônneur in Paris in 1900. One of his most important works, The Poor Region, is an allegory for the Czech-Moravian Highlands, a region of breathtaking scenery but contrasted with very destitute people, and once again portraying his wife Ela. It portrays a woman, searching, dreamy, and somewhat lost, in the middle of a summer field; her look is at once soft, disarming, and captivating. It was as if Švabinský was searching to express all the faces of the female with an air of solitude; confused, yet peaceful.

Another well-known picture is Birds of Paradise (1904), showing a seated female nude, her face turned from the viewer and softly shrouded in mystery as she gazes into a book. Her faintly fetal posture displays her body’s map of the fullness of intimacy and vulnerability. Only the two birds are privy to her personal piece of paradise.

“Diamonds” are forever

Švabinský was born at the end of the 19th century to a 16-year-old mother in the small town of Kroměříž in central Moravia. His hometown picturesquely combined Renaissance and baroque architecture, temples and churches. The whole landscape, encompassed by the Chropyně woods and the Morava River, was an immense delight for the perceptive young Švabinský. He started painting when he was 5 years old, works his family referred to as “diamonds.” He readily admitted that observing the changes of the landscape – the chimerical shapes of the summer clouds and a silver stretch of fog above the river – had laid down the indispensable foundations for the future painter.

Švabinský received his first major opportunity to express his exceptional talent by creating the large composition in the entrance hall of the Zemská Banka (currently the Živnostenská Banka, Na Příkopě 858) in Prague. He decided to use the richness of the Czech countryside as a motif and for this choice he received general recognition and praise.

The artist then received another significant commission from the Czech Academy of Sciences to decorate with portraits of Czech scientists and artists the celebratory almanac for the 50th anniversary of Emperor Franz Josef’s reign. Drawing portraits of Czech national heroes such as Palacký, Němcová, Havlíček Borovský, Neruda, Tyl, Smetana and Dvořák, he began a lifelong series that he enlarged over a period of 50 years. A portrait commissioned by Professor Hlávka, president of the Academy of Sciences, opened the doors to the whole spiritual sphere of the intelligentsia for Švabinský, who then went on to paint the country’s first president, T.G. Masaryk. The artist created the theme for the first Czechoslovak banknotes, together with the brilliant Alfons Mucha.

Švabinský became professor at the Prague Academy of Fine Arts, and was highly esteemed not only as an ingenious draftsman and painter, but as a graphic artist as well.

As a professor, he educated and guided many artists which today are of good repute: Rambousek, Štika, Svilovský, Vodrážka, Slavíček, and Cyril Bouda. He remained a respected public figure from that time on, until his death in 1962. It is a remarkable fact that his creative, and in a sense innovative, comprehension of art differed from that avowed by his contemporaries; despite social upheaval and political pressure, Švbinkský remained loyal to his own artistic vision.

If you are interested in art as an investment or would simply like to have an example of Švabinský’s talent in your office or home, you can find out about his works by consulting the Dorotheum auction house catalogue. Prices start from 75,000 Kč per piece. Selected paintings, drawings, and graphics are also on display in Kroměříž.

If you’d like to discover more about the long, idiosyncratic, and turbulent life of the artist, there is also a permanent exhibition devoted to his life and work in the local museum at Kroměříž. His two most famous pictures, The Poor Region and The Communion of Souls, hang in the National Gallery; his mosaic – a national treasure – dedicated to the memory of Czech Legionnaires who faced the firing squad, is in the Liberty Memorial on Vítkov Hill. Or you can stand in awe of his three stained-glass windows in St. Vitus Cathedral.

As fall comes to the Czech Republic, the curators at Obecní Dům, along with Mánes Mitte s.r.o,have prepared a seasonal treat – an exhibition of works by the beloved Czech artist Josef Lada. Commemorating the 50th anniversary of Lada’s death, this jubilee exhibition follows the artist’s life through his craft, moving from his early childrens’ illustrations through his stylistic maturation in the 1920s, on to his later development and works. In addition to Lada’s extensive trademark work in the realm of nursery rhymes and fairy tales – including illustrations from Hašek’s The Good Soldier Švejk – less well-known works from private collections will be on display, as well as advertising work, stage designs and more.

The exhibition is being held from November 2007 to February 2008, under the patronage of the Mayor of Prague MUDr. Pavel Bém, and will be accompanied by a catalogue with roughly 60 standard pages of text and 200 reproductions.

Josef Lada was born on December 17, 1887, the youngest of four children in a local cobbler’s family in the village of Hrusice, some 30 kilometers east of Prague. Today there is a Josef Lada Museum in Hrusice, in a villa that Lada built later in his life.

Lada loved winter, which is why so many of his pictures depict the winter season, and his idealized paintings of carol singers and family gatherings are for many in this country an enduring symbol of Czech Christmas. The artist also loved Christmas, even though his childhood was spent modestly in a tiny village and he never received expensive Christmas gifts.

Lada could only see in one eye – as a baby he reportedly fell from the cradle and jabbed his eye on one of his father’s knives. Some critics connect this fact with Lada’s special visual perspective, so typical for his characteristic style. Despite this, he painted around 15,000 pictures and illustrated books by 130 authors. The most famous of them is Jaroslav Hasek’s The Good Soldier Švejk, which has been translated into 47 languages. He also contributed to 81 magazines, six of them foreign ones.

Lada died on December 14, 1957, just three days before his 70th birthday, and was buried at the Olšany cemetery in Prague.

Napoleon said he preferred lucky generals to smart ones.

Štěpán Popovič, the CEO of AGC Flat Glass Czech, sees the Little Emperor as a role-model, but, with all due respect, he prefers to make his own luck. “I always tried to be a step ahead and I tried to be at the right place at the right time,” he says. “Several times I was appointed to managerial positions in which it was necessary to solve quite serious problems. I was always successful, but I am not sure if I can call it good luck – rather, I had to work hard.”

One of the greatest crises of his career came in the early 1990s when, as CEO of North Bohemia’s biggest sheet glass manufacturer, Sklo Union, he had to decide whether to sell 40 percent of the company to Belgian glassmaker Glaverbel. He took the plunge, and later he faced the resulting barrage of accusations of asset stripping and undervaluation of the company with equanimity.

Today the CEO of AGC Flat Glass Czech in Teplice and of Glaverbel Group for Central and Eastern Europe points out that in the tricky changeover process from a socialist to a market economy, foreign partnership gave his company an enormous head start. “It taught us the principles of financing in a market economy, that is, something we had not known much about before 1989, and it taught us to behave as a company that is managed by its customers,” recalls Popovič. “We had to master skills of financing and trading which we simply could not have before 1989 because the principles of management were completely different.”

By the end of the decade, Glaverbel had acquired full control of the Czech company and the resulting subsidiary was renamed Glaverbel Czech. Today many universities use Glaverbel’s entry into the glass industry as a case study about the right way to carry out a joint venture.

Since then, the company’s results speak for themselves. Glaverbel Czech a.s. is the leading manufacturer of float glass in Central and Eastern Europe and its products are sold world-wide, thanks to access to the Glaverbel Group’s sales network. This year, Glaverbel Czech won first place in the Axa Employer of the Year Competition, ahead of Česka Spořitelna and Škoda Auto. With over 1,100 workers, it is the largest employer in the North Bohemian region. More important, with an average monthly salary of 30,500 crowns, it is one of the best-paying employers in the country.

It looks like things could get even better. In June of this year, Glaverbel Belgium President Jean-Francois Heris told Jan Muller, the Czech Ambassador to Belgium, that the company was contemplating the establishment of its European service center in the Czech Republic. Heris said that Glaverbel owes the success of its Czech venture to its Czech managers to who are fully responsible for running the subsidiaries. It is therefore no coincidence that the ability to take responsibility ranks top among Popovič’s list of requisite qualities for a manager.

“I would like to emphasize that it is impossible to learn to be a good manager,” insists Heris. “A man must have a talent for managing. The higher managers advance, the less they manage particular processes; yet at the same time, their responsibility grows. And this, I think, is the most important and the most difficult point – to take full responsibility for results,” says Popovič.

On the other hand, Popovič feels the role of a manager is very simple. “Good managers must make money for their owners,” he says. Sadly for the company, even great leaders deserve their rest, and the 61-year old Popovič has started to talk about retiring. How he will find time to do it is another question. “In the mornings and in the evenings I walk my dog, and that is my relaxation,” Popovič says. “Sometimes I even have a problem finding time for that. I read with great interest interviews with managers who say that they work from 12 to 14 hours a day. Then they talk about their hobbies they say that they play golf or tennis or go to a fitness center… and I always tell myself that I have to be doing something wrong. They must not sleep.”

There is no nameplate out on the street to advertise the presence of Mimolimit, one of Prague’s most soughtafter interior design studios, located in a Baroque palace now also occupied by the Czech Red Cross. Inside, large, fanciful flower arrangements add splashes of color to the warren of high-ceilinged old rooms, but ordinary drafting desks leave no doubt that this is primarily a work and not a showplace.

The designer/architect’s own office is simple. A large window overlooks the courtyard and sheds daylight on a suspiciously tidy glass desk. But Barbora Škorpilová’s real work gets done on a large worktable crowned by a single, huge slab of grey granite in the anteroom. Guests and clients sit in a carmine replica of a Baroque Chinese chair. In one corner, a small white plastic blow-up puppy tries to climb a wooden folding chair.

It’s a far cry from the panelák cubicle used for storing baby carriages where she started out decorating her friends’ apartments.

Škorpilová and her former schoolfellow Jan Nedvěd founded Mimolimit in 1996. Initially, the bulk of their work was a distinctly minimalist office space – a far cry from her present elaborate style.

“Was I a minimalist?” she reflects, bemused. “I guess I was. Partly because back then we had to work with the materials we had available – and that wasn’t much. What’s more, today we can try wild – or rather ‘unusual’ – combinations we wouldn’t have risked in the beginning.”

“Of course,” she adds, “you have to know something about it. And I love it. I love finding the unity in all that profusion.”

The knack is finding a common denominator.

“I think you can combine anything, but you have to very carefully judge the proportions – and the reason for it… You have to find the parallels. For example, you can put a Chinese and European Baroque chair across from each other, but you have to find the right chairs. It is a very audacious combination, but people will generally get it.”

Her first big chance to spread her creative wings came in 2000, when she did the décor of the Zahrada v Opeře (Garden at the opera) restaurant in the erstwhile parliament building. Although she was dubious of the location between two highways, the design was praised and soon other commissions followed, including V Zátiší , Hotel Neruda, and Kampa Park, even a McDonalds at the Budějovická metro stop.

No two are alike

Muted tones of grey, white, and gold prevail in V Zátiší (Still-life) restaurant, where the décor evokes an artist’s studio, with stylized artist’s easels, stacks of books and still life paintings, including originals by Václav Špála, Max Švabinský, Jan Zrzavý, and Emil Filla on the walls.

In Kampa Park, near Charles Bridge, the stately, vaulted carmine walls are lit up by a huge chandelier and made up of dozens of white lights, with little wings. The historic Hotel Neruda in Malá Strana is an exercise in simplicity – a world of white slipcovers and stark black and grey fixtures which set off the 650-year old stone walls to perfection.

Duplicating her previous work is a cardinal sin in Škorpilová’s book. Alas, nowadays, with the studio working on 20 to 30 projects at a time, this can get tricky.

“There are so many projects and sometimes you’re tempted to do something over again just to get it done. That’s when you have to stop and say ‘no, no and no.’ Sometimes a big project just falls into place and a small one just refuses to come together. That’s when I retreat to the bathtub. A bath, coffee, and pineapple are my recipe for creative block.”

Bigger clients, bigger dreams

Over time, her commissions and her clients have grown. Her design of the Holiday Inn in Prague 4 in 2001 won her the “Best Hotel Project Of The Year’’ in the prestigious “Best of Realty’’ development competition and lead to her largest project to date: the complete design of the Ulaanbaatar Hotel Hilton in Mongolia.

In the cement jungle of Ulaanbaatar, where all but a few of the ancient monasteries have been razed and replaced by endless grey tenements, it stands out like a mountain meadow in the middle of a desert.

The undulating facade of red, green, and reflecting vertical panels is meant to evoke the feeling of infinite movement. The lobby, illuminated on one side by a huge atrium, will be dominated by a majestic staircase. The rooms themselves will have a trapezoidal layout to fit the building’s curves; large windows look out over the mountains.

She says the Mongolians have had no trouble accepting her avant garde concept.

“They treat me like a princess,” she smiles.

The Client Connection

She says that often, bigger clients are often easier to work with than the smaller ones.

“I think it’s because we’ve learned something along the way, and nowadays we don’t need to spend so much time convincing people,” she says, adding that it is often the clients themselves who push her to be even more daring.

Working closely with her clients is absolutely essential to the project, she says.

“If we don’t end up being friends, it’s just not right,” she says. “There must be dialogue – sometimes it can turn into a chess match. Interaction and finding a common ground is the key. It’s best when the person feels drawn into the creative process, feels he is influencing it, is intertwined with it somehow.”

The Essential Something Extra

Although her decors are avant-garde, to say the least, she says that the Czechs, even after 40 years of socialist realism, are ready for them.

“Czechs are much more open to architectural or design elements than people think,” she says. “Things have improved here tremendously. Looking at 15-yearold magazines, you see that now people really want something… they care about the space they’re in and the things around them, how a room smells – these things are a matter of course now.”

She takes special care not to forget the human element.

“There are lots of ways to design a post office or a restaurant that people find attractive, but you have to add something extra. People will accept new things in all types of materials and colors, provided that they have a natural human dimension.”

Often, the “something extra” is playfulness.

“Playfulness is an essential ingredient,” she says. “People always want to find that enchanted detail.”

Josef Pleskot is one of the most important architects working in the Czech Republic today, and is featured on the cover of this issue. Pleskot’s design of buildings and structures include the new headquarters of ČSOB in Radlice, the Palmovka Park and BDO buildings in Prague, the Consulate of the Czech Republic in Munich, and a tunnel (“the pathway through the deer moat”) at Prague Castle. He is also renowned as a designer of luxury villas, family houses, and loft apartments. He directs a team of twelve architects and designers at the AP Atelier, picturesquely housed in a former factory in Holešovice, Prague 7, once owned by his great uncle. Josef Pleskot sat down recently with Lifestyles to talk about his work and about the direction of Czech architecture.

Where are you from?

From Písek in South Bohemia. I went to school there.

What do you think of Písek in terms of architecture?

The city is beautiful, but also very settled. It has a long tradition, but it seems to me that there isn’t enough interest in modern architecture. But there could be, because in the period between the wars some very nice houses and modern spaces were built in Písek. But now these things are not happening there. I think it’s a question of taste; the city is pretty self-confident and thinks that what it has is enough. But I would warn them…

What are the trends in Czech architecture?

I think that Czech society is on the whole quite modern and forward-looking. It’s open to new trends, sometimes too open, frankly. It could be a little more discriminating and traditional – it too easily casts off certain things and follows fashionable trends. It’s a little too eager to take up trends from the West. Of course, it can also be difficult for modern architecture to penetrate those Czech cities and towns that are protected as historical monuments. Unfortunately, modern architecture is banished to the edges of towns. Architects are told “over there” you can do what you like, but we won’t let you into the center of the city. This seems to me a shame. It’s also true that there aren’t that many shining examples of modern architecture in these historical cities.

What are you working on now?

We recently finished a large project for ČSOB, their new headquarters in Radlice. It’s a project that occupied us intensively for three years and less intensively for five. A project of this size comes once or twice in a lifetime. Now we’re working on three villas, family houses, with clients who are really fun and good to work with. And we’re also refurbishing castles in Litomyšl, which is an extremely interesting project and is something totally different. This project is funded by money from the European fund.

Does the final ČSOB building reflect your original vision?

I would say so, yes. But I can’t really answer the question fully, because the project is a long-term one. You modify your original vision during the course of the work. So it seems to me what is built to a certain extent reflects the virtual vision or, I would say, is identical; but of course, the abstract is a little different from the concrete. So there are certainly some differences and no ideal can ever be attained.

What limits do you face when designing a building?

I think that money is certainly a limit. But I haven’t personally faced extraordinary financial limits. I have a great deal of freedom, but I don’t want to abuse this freedom. I want to serve the client, so I listen to them a lot. For ČSOB, the investor said that he has a particular budget and asked us to stick to it. I have enough discipline that when someone tells me what they can spend, I try to do the work for that amount and not more. I consider this a professional approach.

What other limits are there?

There are many zoning laws in the Czech Republic. We are legislative maniacs and try to control a lot of things by means of norms and standards. I think that we needlessly damage ourselves with these. In a sense, we are still Austrian-Hungarians and we have a tendency to continue to uphold the standards and legislation that were codified in that era. There are a lot of limits in this regard.

What do you think of Jan Kaplický’s controversial design for the National Library?

I’m neither an admirer nor a critic. It seems to me that the design that won is the product of a certain idea. I’m tolerant of this idea and I can imagine the National Library looking like that. On the other hand, I also participated in the competition and our design was very minimalist, completely different.

What did it look like?

We designed it to be lower than the surrounding trees. We designed the building in such a way that it did not dominate the Letna plain. But the interior space that we designed has the same qualities that Jan Kaplický claims his interior has, and I think that this was overlooked by the judges, because it wasn’t visible from the outside. But I don’t want to sound as though I’m complaining that we were overlooked or were somehow misjudged, because that’s not what I think at all. The committee that selected the design simply wasn’t in the mood for a minimalist project.

Why do you think they selected something more extravagant?

I think it was just an inner desire. Even the jury was formed in such a way to support this mood. Actually, many Czech architects didn’t participate in the competition, because they said that they could not survive in that environment. There really was a kind of desire on the part of the committee to introduce Kaplický onto the Czech scene. Why not? I have nothing against it at all.

What do you think about the public reaction to this? Why don’t a lot of people like it?

A lot of people don’t like it, but also a lot of ordinary people do, people in the villages and the pub. This is a pleasant surprise for me, because they’ve started talking about architecture. There’s a longing for modern architecture that in a way seems strange to me, because we are a small nation and it’s almost as though up until now we have sought certain qualities of a small nation. Personally, I like this kind of discreetness. But I also like grander, more organic architecture, like Jan Kaplický’s designs, which really evoke a certain rhythm. But on the whole I like minimalist styles best. These are more geometric, perhaps less spectacular, but with a lot of interior space. I just think that modern architecture, despite the fact that it’s becoming more liberal-minded, is not necessarily more liberating. Sometimes baroque palaces seem to me much more liberal and broad-minded than modern architecture, at least with regard to people, to the individual.

You studied in Prague?

Yes, I graduated in 1979, at a very bad time politically for the country. Oddly, I can’t say that this destroyed free thought in me. Thinking is and always was free, at least for me. But obviously there are much greater opportunities now. There’s a whole range of inventive and enlightened investors with whom it’s good to do business. The big construction companies like Metrostav or Skanska are giving birth to some very interesting ideas. I think that the situation in the Czech Republic is pretty good right now. Firms are saying we want to build beautiful projects.

Which architects and styles influenced you the most?

Among Czech architects I admire Jaroslav Fragner, most of all for his work on the Karolinum. The reconstruction of those historical buildings with the influence or rather the contribution of modern elements seems to me extremely noble, beautiful, and harmonious. I also love the work of Alena Šrámková, who influenced me a great deal. I’m also excited and continue to be excited by the work of Karel Prager, who is still perceived as being quite controversial.

What cities do you admire from an architectural point of view?

Well, I haven’t seen many of them! Of course, I’ve visited a few, but it’s hard for me to say, because I really love Prague and don’t travel much. Certainly I liked Rome very much and want to go back there. I was also charmed by London. If I was young and didn’t have a practice as I do now, I would certainly want to have one in London. That’s where I would want to spend my formative years.

What does London offer that Prague doesn’t?

I think that London is a much more metropolitan city, much more open. It seems to me that not even Paris is as open as London. But I’ve never been there for an extended stay; I never had the opportunity to live there and get to know it in depth. As for Rome, I like the European traditionalism, from Roman antiquity through the Judeo-Christian period to the present day. This is something that I like very much in Europe and I’m saddened that this seems to be going away.

Which of your projects are you most proud of?

I get the most satisfaction from the tunnel at Prague castle. I feel that I’ve contributed something good for a lot of people. When you build a family house, you bring good to that family; but in this case, it’s a project that has made a lot of people happy, even though the tunnel, the pathway through the deer moat, is pretty hidden and closed in the winter. But it’s made a lot of people happy, a lot of Prague residents happy.

Josef Pleskot is one of the most important architects working in the Czech Republic today, and is featured on the cover of this issue. Pleskot’s design of buildings and structures include the new headquarters of ČSOB in Radlice, the Palmovka Park and BDO buildings in Prague, the Consulate of the Czech Republic in Munich, and a tunnel (“the pathway through the deer moat”) at Prague Castle. He is also renowned as a designer of luxury villas, family houses, and loft apartments. He directs a team of twelve architects and designers at the AP Atelier, picturesquely housed in a former factory in Holešovice, Prague 7, once owned by his great uncle. Josef Pleskot sat down recently with Lifestyles to talk about his work and about the direction of Czech architecture.

Where are you from?

From Písek in South Bohemia. I went to school there.

What do you think of Písek in terms of architecture?

The city is beautiful, but also very settled. It has a long tradition, but it seems to me that there isn’t enough interest in modern architecture. But there could be, because in the period between the wars some very nice houses and modern spaces were built in Písek. But now these things are not happening there. I think it’s a question of taste; the city is pretty self-confident and thinks that what it has is enough. But I would warn them…

What are the trends in Czech architecture?

I think that Czech society is on the whole quite modern and forward-looking. It’s open to new trends, sometimes too open, frankly. It could be a little more discriminating and traditional – it too easily casts off certain things and follows fashionable trends. It’s a little too eager to take up trends from the West. Of course, it can also be difficult for modern architecture to penetrate those Czech cities and towns that are protected as historical monuments. Unfortunately, modern architecture is banished to the edges of towns. Architects are told “over there” you can do what you like, but we won’t let you into the center of the city. This seems to me a shame. It’s also true that there aren’t that many shining examples of modern architecture in these historical cities.

What are you working on now?

We recently finished a large project for ČSOB, their new headquarters in Radlice. It’s a project that occupied us intensively for three years and less intensively for five. A project of this size comes once or twice in a lifetime. Now we’re working on three villas, family houses, with clients who are really fun and good to work with. And we’re also refurbishing castles in Litomyšl, which is an extremely interesting project and is something totally different. This project is funded by money from the European fund.

Does the final ČSOB building reflect your original vision?

I would say so, yes. But I can’t really answer the question fully, because the project is a long-term one. You modify your original vision during the course of the work. So it seems to me what is built to a certain extent reflects the virtual vision or, I would say, is identical; but of course, the abstract is a little different from the concrete. So there are certainly some differences and no ideal can ever be attained.

What limits do you face when designing a building?

I think that money is certainly a limit. But I haven’t personally faced extraordinary financial limits. I have a great deal of freedom, but I don’t want to abuse this freedom. I want to serve the client, so I listen to them a lot. For ČSOB, the investor said that he has a particular budget and asked us to stick to it. I have enough discipline that when someone tells me what they can spend, I try to do the work for that amount and not more. I consider this a professional approach.

What other limits are there?

There are many zoning laws in the Czech Republic. We are legislative maniacs and try to control a lot of things by means of norms and standards. I think that we needlessly damage ourselves with these. In a sense, we are still Austrian-Hungarians and we have a tendency to continue to uphold the standards and legislation that were codified in that era. There are a lot of limits in this regard.

What do you think of Jan Kaplický’s controversial design for the National Library?

I’m neither an admirer nor a critic. It seems to me that the design that won is the product of a certain idea. I’m tolerant of this idea and I can imagine the National Library looking like that. On the other hand, I also participated in the competition and our design was very minimalist, completely different.

What did it look like?

We designed it to be lower than the surrounding trees. We designed the building in such a way that it did not dominate the Letna plain. But the interior space that we designed has the same qualities that Jan Kaplický claims his interior has, and I think that this was overlooked by the judges, because it wasn’t visible from the outside. But I don’t want to sound as though I’m complaining that we were overlooked or were somehow misjudged, because that’s not what I think at all. The committee that selected the design simply wasn’t in the mood for a minimalist project.

Why do you think they selected something more extravagant?

I think it was just an inner desire. Even the jury was formed in such a way to support this mood. Actually, many Czech architects didn’t participate in the competition, because they said that they could not survive in that environment. There really was a kind of desire on the part of the committee to introduce Kaplický onto the Czech scene. Why not? I have nothing against it at all.

What do you think about the public reaction to this? Why don’t a lot of people like it?

A lot of people don’t like it, but also a lot of ordinary people do, people in the villages and the pub. This is a pleasant surprise for me, because they’ve started talking about architecture. There’s a longing for modern architecture that in a way seems strange to me, because we are a small nation and it’s almost as though up until now we have sought certain qualities of a small nation. Personally, I like this kind of discreetness. But I also like grander, more organic architecture, like Jan Kaplický’s designs, which really evoke a certain rhythm. But on the whole I like minimalist styles best. These are more geometric, perhaps less spectacular, but with a lot of interior space. I just think that modern architecture, despite the fact that it’s becoming more liberal-minded, is not necessarily more liberating. Sometimes baroque palaces seem to me much more liberal and broad-minded than modern architecture, at least with regard to people, to the individual.

You studied in Prague?

Yes, I graduated in 1979, at a very bad time politically for the country. Oddly, I can’t say that this destroyed free thought in me. Thinking is and always was free, at least for me. But obviously there are much greater opportunities now. There’s a whole range of inventive and enlightened investors with whom it’s good to do business. The big construction companies like Metrostav or Skanska are giving birth to some very interesting ideas. I think that the situation in the Czech Republic is pretty good right now. Firms are saying we want to build beautiful projects.

Which architects and styles influenced you the most?

Among Czech architects I admire Jaroslav Fragner, most of all for his work on the Karolinum. The reconstruction of those historical buildings with the influence or rather the contribution of modern elements seems to me extremely noble, beautiful, and harmonious. I also love the work of Alena Šrámková, who influenced me a great deal. I’m also excited and continue to be excited by the work of Karel Prager, who is still perceived as being quite controversial.

What cities do you admire from an architectural point of view?

Well, I haven’t seen many of them! Of course, I’ve visited a few, but it’s hard for me to say, because I really love Prague and don’t travel much. Certainly I liked Rome very much and want to go back there. I was also charmed by London. If I was young and didn’t have a practice as I do now, I would certainly want to have one in London. That’s where I would want to spend my formative years.

What does London offer that Prague doesn’t?

I think that London is a much more metropolitan city, much more open. It seems to me that not even Paris is as open as London. But I’ve never been there for an extended stay; I never had the opportunity to live there and get to know it in depth. As for Rome, I like the European traditionalism, from Roman antiquity through the Judeo-Christian period to the present day. This is something that I like very much in Europe and I’m saddened that this seems to be going away.

Which of your projects are you most proud of?

I get the most satisfaction from the tunnel at Prague castle. I feel that I’ve contributed something good for a lot of people. When you build a family house, you bring good to that family; but in this case, it’s a project that has made a lot of people happy, even though the tunnel, the pathway through the deer moat, is pretty hidden and closed in the winter. But it’s made a lot of people happy, a lot of Prague residents happy.

Having welcomed its first guests almost fifty years ago, the Hotel Jalta on Wenceslas Square is set to celebrate its first half century in style next year, following a full facelift to complement the various other discrete nips and tucks it has endured over the last few years. After spending three months under scaffolding the UNESCO-protected travertine stone façade has been restored to its former glory with the scrupulous attention to detail that a building listed as a cultural landmark demands.

Originally designed by the Czech architect Antonín Tenzer for the Czechoslovak national travel agency Čedok, the operation was considered to be one of the most luxurious hotels in Prague at that time, with extravagant marble floors, and was intended to serve as Warsaw Pact headquarters in the event of another war. As the building that previously stood on the site was destroyed in bombing raids in 1945, it seemed a sensible precaution in the coldwar climate of the mid-1950s to install a nuclear bomb shelter in the basement. Luckily the shelter has not been put to the test yet and the rest of Mr. Tenzer’s Socialist Realism style building has survived the trials of the Communist era remarkably intact.

The hotel’s general manager Jan Adámek appreciates the longevity of the design. “I think the most fantastic thing is that today, 49 years after Antonín Tenzer finished his work, it is still a very good hotel in fantastic condition, with a vision of being a hotel in the same sort of shape for fifty more years, which is amazing. The infrastructure and the system of operations here is still the same,” he says.

Adámek has been with the British-owned property development firm Flow East for seven years now. Apart from taking over and reconstructing the Hotel Jalta, Flow East has been responsible for many of the more prestigious property development projects in the center of Prague since the firm began its operations here in 1990. One of the jewels in its crown is the Hotel Jalta’s neighbor known as The Forum at Wenceslas Square No. 19, in whose award-winning footsteps Adámek hopes the Jalta will follow.

“The Forum won an award for the best reconstruction of a heritage-protected building in 2005,” he says, “and has been recommended by the Heritage Office for some other competitions next year.”

Close cooperation between the developer and the Heritage Office ensured that the distinctive travertine stone façade was preserved impeccably and to the highest possible standards. Every massive piece of the white limestone with its characteristic tiny pits and holes was taken down, the hooks that hold it in place were replaced, and then each piece was put back up. Every effort was made to preserve as much of the original stone from Slovakia as possible but, as is usual with these delicate operations, things did not go as smoothly as hoped.

“We put the scaffolding up and planned to have it up for one month but then we found out that the problems were slightly different to what we expected and so we had the scaffolding up for three months,” says Adámek. “We replaced only 15 % of the stone. We were so lucky that we found the same place that the travertine was taken from 50 years ago and we got partly the same travertine source, which is fantastic; and the Heritage Office was very happy about it. And the good thing is that we replaced only the parts that you normally don’t see, the internal parts or on the balconies inside, so generally what you see from outside is all the same original travertine stone.”

The recent completion of the work on the façade marks the end of the major renovation work that the hotel has undergone in the four years it has been in Flow East’s ownership. The first wave involved some reconstruction work, complete repainting, laying of new carpets, and the purchase of new beds. The popular Hot Restaurant was completely refurbished, as was the conference area on the first floor.

That left some less disruptive tasks to be done in the last twelve months, such as changing the lifts, installing new mini bars and new plasma TV sets, and adding new technical equipment in the conference area. Original decorative sculptures on the façade contrast with newly acquired artwork such as an original Andy Warhol portrait of Franz Kafka, which takes pride of place in the lobby.

And so a typical example of Stalinist architecture has been preserved to the satisfaction of all concerned, yet coaxed into the 21st century to retake its position as a prestigious and very modern destination for any visitor to Prague.

In the late 1990s, the Czech lands and Slovakia were home to many contradictions. The young market economy was enriching some entrepreneurs while others struggled. Per capita income was rising but pensioners and day laborers scraped by on inadequate incomes.

Czech emigrant Michal Beránek had returned home from West Germany and was working in the construction industry. The times appeared anything but propitious for importing and selling high-priced luxury goods, like, for instance, private spas, or whirlpool baths ranging in cost anywhere up to CZK 799,999.

Beránek was chatting one day with a friend and two of the friend’s former classmates, visitors from Canada. The conversation ranged freely over the growing and prospective prosperity of Central Europe, similarities of climate between Canada and the Czech Republic, and the business interests of the Canadian couple.

And the idea for a new Czech business was born. The Canadians exported whirlpool baths, private spas were particularly appropriate, they said, for places like Prague where the residents were traditionally active and the swimming pool season was short. Typically, swimming pools require substantial maintenance for several months a year of use. Spas demand little attention and are used year round, they noted.

“A spa is always ready to use and you can sit inside, chat or sip your favorite drink while the snow falls outside,” explained Beránek.

Daniela Fuxová of Prague, wife of a prominent advertising executive, supported the 1997 launch of Aquamarine Spa, the first Czech company to specialize in selling, installing and servicing private spas. “Our big job that first year was mainly communication and public relations, just getting people to understand what a spa is and why they should have one,” recalled Beránek, now the company’s managing director. “In the beginning people here didn’t know even what a spa is good for. They asked questions like, ‘Can I soak out the parlor curtains there?’”

Even so, he says, the company sold 20 spas in the first year. The spa business seemed like a natural for Fuxová. “When I traveled abroad,” she said, “I saw people in their productive years spending their free time together. They tended to emphasize active lifestyles, healthful relaxation.”

“In those days Czech people gave all their time to work just to catch up with those things that hadn’t been possible to do during our 55 years of socialism,” she said. That there was no market in 1997 for wellness products seemed to Fuxová a challenge not a hindrance.

She gathered and analyzed information and visited producer. For her first product, she chose Sundance spas, made by an international company based in the UK. She chose, she said, with the cold heart of a business executive and the warm aesthetics of a woman.

Sundance had the longest tradition, certificates of quality, patents and new technologies. But she also responded, as a woman, to their original designs and their colors, their looks.

Success has brought its own new set of challenges, Fuxová and Beránek said. There are now a dozen competitors in the market, many distributing spas as secondary lines with other merchandise.

The trend that fascinates Beránek now is the increasing sophistication and technical understanding of the market. Spas still are for socializing, for healthful relaxation and family togetherness, he said.

But, he said, customers arrive at Aquamarine’s showroom aware of the varieties of outline, color, lighting and nozzle placement that are available. Funny to mention, neither Beránek nor Fuxová has a spa at home just now. Beránek lives in a flat with insufficient space for one, he says, but he has access to the use of spas in the showroom. Fuxová says she donated the family spa to a friend, who works as a healer.

And, says Fuxová, she has renewed her research for the world’s best spa – taking into account beauty of lines, arrangement of nozzles, lights and colors, quality of construction. “It will go in soon,” she said. “Having had spas, now, we can’t live long without one.”

“Having had spas, now, we
can’t live long without one.”

In 1996, Jan Horal, a member of the RAF during World War II, took a trip to Český Krumlov. It was a place he remembered from his childhood. The owner of Hotel Duo in Prague, Horal was shocked to see the condition of Český Krumlov’s large, 16^th-century, landmark hotel (which he described as “a horror”) overlooking the Old Town. Standing in front of it, he muttered, “If I owned this hotel, I would take better care of it!”

A man standing behind Horal stepped forward and introduced himself. It was the mayor of Český Krumlov, and he told Horal that the hotel was for sale by the town. “Three and a half hours later,” Horal remembers, “I was the owner of a hotel.” (Horal later also bought the Old Inn Hotel, down the street from the Hotel Růže).

Horal implemented a massive reconstruction project. Sets of three rooms were turned into two rooms, with the room in the middle divided in half so that two bathrooms could be built from it. Redecorated in a Renaissance era-style, the rooms feature dark wood and red fabrics – some of the bedrooms even have flowing, period designs painted on one of their walls – and the floors and ceilings are wood.

But the rooms offer all the modern conveniences, masked by Renaissance design: minibars and televisions are set into wooden cabinets, radiators and air conditioners are hidden by tasteful wooden covers. Even some of the bathrooms have an amusing touch created by their Renaissance-style wooden furniture.

Asked where the Renaissance-era furniture came from, Horal replies, “We built it.” Horal took his carpenter to museums and showed him pictures in books on Renaissance-era furniture, pointing out which pieces he wanted. “It wasn’t difficult,” he states. “Renaissance furniture is very simple.” Even with all the changes made to transform the hotel from what Horal describes as “Neo-Stalinist Renaissance style” into a top-quality, five-star hotel, the project only took six months to complete before the hotel was ready for business. Of the hotel’s 70 rooms, 40 have sweeping views of the town; the rest face the interior courtyard, which still displays the original, 16th-century paintings and sgraffito on the exterior walls.

A convoluted historyThe four-wing hotel is a former Jesuit college. Its patrons, Wilhelm von Rosenberg and his fourth wife, Polyxena, bought six Gothic buildings standing on the site and destroyed them in order to build the college. Architect Baldassare Maggi d’Arogno, who moved to Bohemia from his native Italy in 1575, constructed the building based on plans by Alexander Vojtov, then rector of the Jesuit college in Prague. Construction began in 1586 and was completed in 1588; the college’s 59 windows required 16,695 individual pieces of glass.In 1773, Filip Holger remodeled the building for use as an army barracks, a function it performed until the late 1880s. Then in 1889, a license was granted to turn the premises into the Hotel Růže. The facade was restored and the staircase in the left wing was remodeled. The right wing and theater hall were renovated in 1906, and new rafters were built over the left and rear wings following a fire in 1919. Even in more recent times, the building has experienced some interesting changes of fortune: during the First Republic, it was also the social center of the Czech minority in Český Krumlov, which at that time was predominantly German. But during World War II, it was used as a rehabilitation center for members of the German SS. In 1948, the hotel was nationalized, becoming a “government showpiece,” in the words of the current owner. Many rooms lacked even the most basic amenities, such as bathrooms. During the 1960s, ’80s, and ’90s, restoration work was performed to maintain the original character of the building. Amazingly, given the number of times the building has changed owners, none of them violated the original Renaissance flavor of the buildings. Anna Putová, a friend of Horal’s, assisted in decorating the walls by creating copies of works by such artists as Brueghel and Holbein. She was so successful that a German art expert attempted to buy one of the replicas for a large sum of money, convinced that it was original. Horal says that approximately 50% of the paintings in the hotel are original, and the rest are Putová’s copies.

The first floor contains the “Jesuit Hall,” now used for special occasions (conferences, concerts, wedding parties). The use of this area of the hotel is free of charge for certain organizations. Horal also hosts gatherings for his RAF friends in the hotel.

Český Krumlov is approximately 25 km from the Austrian border, and around 60 km from the German border, which meant that a high number of German-speaking tourists traditionally visited the area. But during the past four or five years, Germans have become a little scarcer; many of those who still visit prefer to stay in smaller lodgings. Recently more Japanese tourists have been inundating the town, but communication isn’t a problem as most Japanese visitors speak English, which Horal refers to as “functional Esperanto.” He adds that many local tourism workers are learning Japanese, and his own staff members speak several languages.

VIP guests have included Karl Gustav of Sweden, Princess Margaret of Denmark, opera singer Eva Urbanová, and many politicians. When films are shot in the town or in the area, the Hotel Růže often hosts the cast and crew.

With a population of only 14,000, Český Krumlov hosts around 1.2 million visitors each year. Wilhelm and Polyxena would be amazed.