The family and colleagues said goodbye to architect Hubáček today

photo: Jiří Jiroutek

Liberec - Family, colleagues, city representatives, and residents of Liberec gathered this afternoon at the Liberec crematorium to bid farewell to Karel Hubáček for the last time. The world-renowned architect is credited with one of the symbols of the regional city - the hotel and transmitter at the top of Ještěd. He passed away on Wednesday, November 23, at the age of 87.
      In the filled mourning hall of the crematorium, Hubáček's significance was highlighted by his former collaborator Jiří Suchomel from the Faculty of Art and Architecture of the Technical University in Liberec. He particularly emphasized his role in the so-called "kindergarten" of the Sial studio.
      "The kindergarten and its activities anticipated the establishment of the Liberec Faculty of Architecture by a quarter of a century," said Suchomel. "Karel Hubáček and Sial are almost synonymous," added the vice-dean.
      Among those who came to say goodbye to the deceased architect today was also his former colleague Miroslav Masák, who collaborated with him on the now non-existent Liberec department store Ještěd.
      Hubáček was born in 1924. He studied architecture in Prague. However, his professional career is largely tied to northern Bohemia's Liberec, where he joined the then Stavoprojekt. At the end of the 1960s, he was among the founders of Sial, which was able to respond to modern European trends during normalization and produced numerous personalities of Czech architecture.
      Hubáček is credited with a number of buildings. The transmitter and mountain hotel at Ještěd is, however, his most famous work. Remarkably, when he began to draw it, he did not hesitate to take risks and ignored the competition's brief, which proposed two separate buildings for the transmitter and hotel at the top of the mountain.
      The construction, which has the shape of a rotational hyperboloid, was created between 1966 and 1973. For its elegance and practical use of modern technologies, it received the prestigious Perret Prize from the International Union of Architects in 1969. In addition to this, it boasts the title of the most significant Czech building of the 20th century, awarded to it in a poll by domestic experts.
      At the transmitter on the top of Ještěd, Karel Hubáček's memory will also be honored by his admirers on Sunday.