For Kotěra to the Braník Waterworks

In 2011, 140 years have passed since the birth of one of the most significant Czech architects, Jan Kotěra. In 2012 and 2013, the celebrations of Kotěra will continue as they commemorate one hundred years since the completion of his most important building - the museum in Hradec Králové. On the occasion of these anniversaries, a lecture on the topic of Public Buildings by Jan Kotěra will be held in the recently beautifully renovated pumping station building in Braník designed by the same architect.

Jan Kotěra (1871-1923) is justly considered the founder of Czech modern architecture. His abilities in organizing artistic activities, providing opportunities for his colleagues and students, generosity, and boundless diligence, and above all - the consistent insistence on quality execution and precise perfection and harmony of all architectural components - made him one of the most interesting figures in Czech culture of the 20th century. An unprecedented European outlook, training at the right time in the right place (Otto Wagner's studio at the Vienna Academy in the mid-1890s), a sense of detail, material, functionality, and demands for modern expression, all these are characteristics of this unique architect. The values that Kotěra’s architecture still conveys to us today should be, especially in these times of uncertainties and questionable qualities of public architecture, not only respected but continually remembered.

The lecture will not only present the commemorative museum building in the East Bohemian metropolis (1909-1913), but also the project of the waterworks at Zelená liška in Michle and the associated pumping station in Braník (1904). This realization was followed by the construction of a water tower in Třeboň (1909), which seems to have sprung from the same source as the one in Michle. In addition, Kotěra's top publishing houses will be introduced (the Laichter House in Vinohrady /1908-9/ and the Urbánek House, known as the Mozarteum /1910-13/ in the immediate vicinity of Wenceslas Square). Moreover, the lecture will cover monumental cubist buildings such as the General Pension Institute (1912-14) or the later building of the Vítkovice Mining and Metallurgical Company (1921-24). Kotěra outlived the long-drawn-out project of the Faculty of Law and Theology, which lasted an incredible fifteen years (the first sketches are dated 1907, the building was completed after Kotěra's death in 1923 by his student Ladislav Machoň). The conversation will also turn to one of Kotěra's first so-called Gesamtkunstwerks, the District House in Hradec Králové (1903-1904), or the still-captivating National House in Prostějov (1905-7). Various ephemeral projects will also be included, such as Kotěra's designs for the stage of Rusalka (1901). The lecture will be supplemented by readings of the most significant moments from texts that had the most marked influence on Kotěra's work, such as B. Scott's book The House and Garden, Wagner's treatise On Modern Architecture, as well as excerpts from Kotěra's own texts (On New Art in Free Directions).

The lecture will take place on February 16, 2012, at 6:00 PM in the hall of the main building of the pumping station complex of the Vršovice Waterworks in Braník.

The lecture will be delivered by Ladislav Zikmund-Lender, author of the monographic guide to Trmal's Villa in Prague, author of the upcoming monograph on the museum building in Hradec Králové, contributor to a number of collective monographs (Family Houses of Jan Kotěra, Famous Villas of the Plzeň Region, On Landscape and Garden, etc.) and magazines (Architect, Atelier, Art&Antiques).

The guest of the program will be the screenwriter and architecture enthusiast Pavel Cmíral.