<p>bread spring 2015 : Alena Šrámková and Rostislav Švácha - In dialogue</p>

The year-round lecture series with Czech and foreign architects, ARCHITEKTKY, continues in the first week of April with a lecture by the First Lady of Czech architecture, Alena Šrámková. Her dialogue partner will be the leading Czech historian and theorist of art and architecture, Rostislav Švácha.

ARCHITEKTKY
Alena Šrámková and Rostislav Švácha / In Dialogue
Thursday, 2.4.2015 / 19:30 / Studio Hrdinů

The lecture series ARCHITEKTKY dedicates space to remarkable women who have dedicated their lives to architecture. Alena Šrámková (*1929) holds a special position in the Czech context. Her distinctive work places her among the absolute elite of the Czech architectural scene, and she is one of the representatives of the so-called “Czech austerity.” Šrámková is the author and co-author of a number of significant buildings in the postmodern style. She gained fame, for example, for the realization of the new building of the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University in Prague, the ČKD building on Wenceslas Square, and the vestibule of Prague's Main Train Station. In addition to public buildings, she also focuses on the design of family or new village houses.
Her unmistakable handwriting emphasizes wholeness, purity, and unpretentiousness of the final result. This approach is aptly illustrated by her own commentary on the building of the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University: “Why is the building the way it is? To teach architects humility. Only by confronting grand proportions can we truly realize ourselves,” says Šrámková, who has been leading her own studio, Šrámková architekti, since 2005.

Alena Šrámková is referred to as the First Lady of Czech architecture. She is the author and co-author of several notable buildings in the postmodern style (the ČKD building on Wenceslas Square in Prague, the vestibule of the Main Train Station in Prague, the Meteorological Station Šerák, the new building of the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University in Prague, etc.). Since 1991, she has been running her own studio, Šrámková architekti, s.r.o. She teaches at the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University while also serving as a professor and member of the artistic council of the Academy of Art, Architecture, and Design in Prague. She has won numerous architectural competitions, received the Personality of Czech Architecture award in 1994, the Honorary Award from the Czech Chamber of Architects in 2007, and the Medal of Merit a year later. In 2010, she was awarded the Ministry of Culture Prize for her contribution to architecture.

Rostislav Švácha is a researcher at the Institute of Art History of the Czech Academy of Sciences and a teacher of architectural history at the University of Olomouc and the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. His work focuses on architecture from the 17th to the 20th century. He published The Architecture of New Prague (Cambridge, Mass. 1995), Karel Teige (Cambridge, Mass. 1999), The Pyramid, the Prism and the Arc: Czech Cubist architecture 1911-1923 (Prague 2000), Sial (Prague 2010, 2012), and Naprej: Czech Sports Architecture 1567-2012 (Prague 2012). In 2013, he received the Ministry of Culture Prize for his contribution to architecture, and in 2014, the Honorary Award from the Czech Chamber of Architects.

More information >