Ladislav Pospíšil
*20. 6. 1927 – Košice, Slovakia
†13. 5. 2021 – Olomouc, Czech Republic
Biography
Ladislav Pospíšil studied architecture and civil engineering at the Brno University of Technology (1946-1950), where outstanding representatives of interwar functionalism, such as Bohuslav Fuchs and Bedřich Rozehnal, were teaching at the time. In 1950, he found employment at Stavoprojekt, initially in Prague at the studio of the national artist Jiří Kroha, briefly in Bratislava, and finally, from 1953, at the Olomouc center. Ladislav Pospíšil belonged to a generation that had socialist realism imposed upon them in the early stages of their work. However, in Olomouc, he was one of those who helped to overcome it in favor of modern architecture, drawing on the Czechoslovak interwar avant-garde and contemporary global trends. This was evidenced not only by his newly constructed dormitory at Stavařov (1959-60), which developed the idea of collective houses, but especially by a building that could long be considered the first truly modern structure here, the so-called Black House near the main train station (1958-59). Although the entire new residential block received national recognition, “someone from the Olomouc district committee of the Communist Party came up with the idea that black and white were the colors of the SS”, Pospíšil recalled years later. The black color of the facade simply undermined the contemporary optimism. Additionally, the architect was known for his collaboration in founding a jazz club in the Slovanský dům. Thus, during the personnel reviews in 1958, he received the worst evaluation and had to leave Stavoprojekt. After some time, he was allowed to return, but he received a definitive dismissal following the reviews in 1971. He found a new refuge in the newly established cooperative DRUPOS, where he soon became a pillar of the design team along with similarly affected Petr Brauner. Ladislav Pospíšil also designed the operational building on Tabulový vrch, which he again conceived in a combination of black and white. He immediately applied his democratic beliefs in November 1989 by becoming involved in the Civic Forum.
Ladislav Pospíšil studied architecture and civil engineering at the Brno University of Technology (1946-1950), where outstanding representatives of interwar functionalism, such as Bohuslav Fuchs and Bedřich Rozehnal, were teaching at the time. In 1950, he found employment at Stavoprojekt, initially in Prague at the studio of the national artist Jiří Kroha, briefly in Bratislava, and finally, from 1953, at the Olomouc center. Ladislav Pospíšil belonged to a generation that had socialist realism imposed upon them in the early stages of their work. However, in Olomouc, he was one of those who helped to overcome it in favor of modern architecture, drawing on the Czechoslovak interwar avant-garde and contemporary global trends. This was evidenced not only by his newly constructed dormitory at Stavařov (1959-60), which developed the idea of collective houses, but especially by a building that could long be considered the first truly modern structure here, the so-called Black House near the main train station (1958-59). Although the entire new residential block received national recognition, “someone from the Olomouc district committee of the Communist Party came up with the idea that black and white were the colors of the SS”, Pospíšil recalled years later. The black color of the facade simply undermined the contemporary optimism. Additionally, the architect was known for his collaboration in founding a jazz club in the Slovanský dům. Thus, during the personnel reviews in 1958, he received the worst evaluation and had to leave Stavoprojekt. After some time, he was allowed to return, but he received a definitive dismissal following the reviews in 1971. He found a new refuge in the newly established cooperative DRUPOS, where he soon became a pillar of the design team along with similarly affected Petr Brauner. Ladislav Pospíšil also designed the operational building on Tabulový vrch, which he again conceived in a combination of black and white. He immediately applied his democratic beliefs in November 1989 by becoming involved in the Civic Forum.
Pavel Zatloukal
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