The Liberec University has restored the memorial to architect Adolf Loos

Liberec – The Technical University of Liberec has restored the memorial Space in honor of architect Adolf Loos by sculptor Jiří Seifert. The artwork from the 1980s was removed ten years ago due to its poor condition, and drug addicts had also been gathering in the enclosed space. At a ceremonial re-unveiling today, the university commemorated the 150th anniversary of the architect's birth. Work on the restoration of the piece will continue, said Radek Suchánek, architect and vice-rector for development at the Liberec university, to ČTK.

Loos was born on December 10, 1870, in Brno and studied at the industrial school in Liberec from 1892 to 1897. The artwork, straddling the line between architecture and sculpture, was erected in the 1980s in front of the Stavoprojekt building on Voroněžská Street, where the Faculty of Economics is currently located. The architects around the Liberec Association of Architects and Engineers (SIAL) decided to honor the significant architect's legacy with a memorial 50 years after his death. "This was the first memorial to Loos in the world," said university rector Miroslav Brzezina.

According to the dean of the Liberec Faculty of Architecture, Osamu Okamura, the memorial is an example of artistic creation from the 1980s. "It is not just a visual sculpture, but it was also meant for the possibility of staying in that space. It is a kind of spiral that a person can enter, sit in, rest, and meditate. It is essentially a pavilion with an open roof to the sky," he said. According to Okamura, Seifert's memorial is a very good example of a brutalist approach to art. "And brutalism is now a much-watched chapter in Czech architecture and art," he added.

The city of Liberec has pledged 100,000 crowns for the restoration of the memorial, and the Liberec Region wants to contribute as well. Discussions are also ongoing regarding the involvement of other entities, as the costs for the reconstruction of the memorial are expected to reach 800,000 crowns. Work on restoring the piece and its lighting will continue into next year. "All restoration work and adjustments to the surroundings should be completed in the first half of 2021 so that by the 88th anniversary of Adolf Loos's death, which falls on August 23, everything will be in its final form," Suchánek added.

Loos is considered one of the founders of modern architecture and a leading representative of architectural purism. There are no buildings of his standing in Liberec, and the only known project intended for the town was the pavilion of Siemens & Halske for the Czech Germans' exhibition in 1906, which, however, has not survived. Students of the Liberec Faculty of Architecture are commemorating the anniversary of the architect's birth with accompanying programs, which are mainly on social media due to coronavirus measures. The public can also participate.