SIAL | (Liberec Association of Engineers and Architects)

3 June – 19 September 2010
Museum of Modern Art | Picture Gallery

The rise of Stalinism in Czechoslovakia in 1948 resulted in the dissolution of private architectural studios and the architects were employed by state engineering organisations known as Stavoprojekt. Taking advantage of the liberal political atmosphere in 1968, a group of architects and engineers was formed in Liberec, who left Stavoprojekt and in 1968 –1971 worked under the trademark Sial – Association of Architects and Engineers, Liberec. The leading personalities were the architects Karel Hubáček and Miroslav Masák and the structural engineers Zdeněk Patrman and Václav Voda. The fundamental contribution of SIAL to 20th century Czech architecture resided in intermediating trends incompatible with the official doctrine as well as developing a creative environment. The masterpiece of Czech architecture of the second half of the 20th century was Hubáček and Patrman’s television transmitter with a hotel on Mount Ještěd (1963 –1973) that was awarded the Auguste Perret Prize by UIA in 1969. In the 1970s and 1980s, the political regime threw sand in the wheels of SIAL and forced its members to return to Stavoprojekt. Nevertheless, the architects did not give up and succeeded in winning a number of foreign orders. As a result, Liberec became the most significant centre of Czech architectural production.