<translate>Ještěd was exceptional for its time, recalls architect Binar</translate>

Liberec - The way the hotel with a transmitter on Ještěd was built more than 40 years ago was exceptional for its time. Not only in the use of materials but also in interior designs. The author of the interior furnishings was Otakar Binar, who is currently involved in the restoration of the lounge and will design new furniture for the hotel.
    "Ještěd was an exception at that time in that a comprehensive design including interiors was developed. This was previously more the case for embassies; hotels were furnished later with standard furniture," the architect stated.
    The building's uniqueness was further enhanced by the involvement of other notable artists of the time in the interior design, such as glass artists Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová. Tableware and some textile accessories were made according to designs by Karel Wünsche, the author of the grille located in the hotel corridor is Jaroslav Klápště, and the tapestry placed on the wall of the lounge was created by Vladimír Křečan.
    The furniture designed by Binar is also unconventional; for example, in the lounge, he used a contrasting combination of a black table with an ebony imitation and white leather chairs. What led him to this he cannot say today. He was partly inspired by the building's uniqueness. "There were materials here that were not completely common for that time. The construction technology was also not traditional - brick and wood. So wood would be, at least it seemed to me, an alien element. So if I used it, it was black, to lose the character of wood," he described.
    According to many, the furniture designed by Binar is timeless; however, the 82-year-old architect is not sure if he would take the same approach today. "The technology and furniture options are different than 40 years ago. Back then, it was something exceptional; plastic was not common. Today, it's regular," he noted.
    He is pleased that the lounge will regain its former appearance. Czech Radiocommunications, the owner of Ještěd, also approached him to help design the new form of the furniture. "I have to adjust the maintenance worker's apartment into a hotel suite," he said. He wants to avoid one mistake he made when designing beds 40 years ago. "Back then, the idea was that rooms would be arranged differently; today, there are two beds next to each other, creating a gap in the middle, which is not good," he remarked.
    The hotel and transmitter on Ještěd is one of the most original architectural works in the Czech Republic. The unique building, for which Karel Hubáček received the prestigious international Perret Prize, has been a national cultural monument since 2006, and people chose it as the Czech building of the century. However, when an exhibition of architectural designs was held 50 years ago, most visitors criticized or outright rejected Hubáček's design. This is documented by a visitors' book that was discovered during the preparation of the exhibition.