Legend of Olomouc architecture Karel Typovský died

NEWS: 06 09 2023

Last week we said goodbye to architect Karel Typovský, the oldest representative of Olomouc modern architecture. The Museum of Art holds a convolute of his works, which he personally donated to the architecture collection. Not so long ago, a number of his designs and realisations were on display at the exhibition On the City, Landscape and Art / Olomouc 1919-1989.

The admirable seventy years of his architectural practice were framed by the era of totalitarianism, real socialism and regained democracy. He graduated in 1949 from the University of Architecture and Civil Engineering in Prague, but returned to his native Olomouc. As a member and later a long-time head of the T studio of the local branch of Stavoprojekt, he is responsible for a number of residential complexes in Olomouc. He started with "sorella", in 1956 he settled the first ever prefabricated building in Olomouc. The phase of experiments in housing turned into rigid typification, but even then the architect tried to get the most out of the available minimum. The talent of Karel Typovský and his colleagues from Olomouc became evident through successful participation in a number of international competitions from the 1960s. We all know, for example, the "swallow" of the Poděbrady recreational complex, which in a brisk Brussels style still testifies to the ingenuity and playfulness of architects whose wings were clipped by central planning. 

The architect died on 21 August and would have been an admirable 100 years old on 4 October.