Czech hotels in the late-modernist style set against the landscape

Abstract

This paper looks at the changes in hotel architecture in post-war Czechoslovakia. In particular, the way in which architects, either with the support of or, in some cases, in resistance to the political dictate, handled the inspirational influences that came from abroad. Namely the Soviet models forced on them, or the ideas that seeped through from the other side of the Iron Curtain that were closer to the Czech modernist environment. The resulting approach of compromises and mixing influences, typical for a small country in the middle of Europe, gave rise to imaginative combinations of the universal principles of the International Style with structural experiments, a return to sophistication and refined craftsmanship, a cautious criticism of Modernism, or an intensive effort to strike a balance and harmony with the poetic character of the landscape.