Meet the architect: inside the luxurious, brutalist Fairmont Golden Prague
Located at the gate of prestigious Pařížská Boulevard on the banks of the Vltava River, the hotel unveils a multi-million Euro renovation of the landmark building of brutalist architecture it occupies.
With its commitment to preserving cultural and artistic history, the renovation, spearheaded by chief architect Marek Tichý, honors the architecture of the structure – originally designed by Czech architect Karel Filsak in the brutalist style in 1974 – while introducing an entirely new hospitality approach into the space and the city.
All the internal preserved arts and craft elements, including blown glass chandeliers, gilded light fixtures, and ornate ash wood posts, have been restored, seamlessly incorporating Czech influences into an otherwise contemporary design.
Guests arriving at the new hotel can find an atmosphere of sophistication and cultural significance alongside modern comfort, heartfelt service, and immersive local experiences.
Renovation of the hotel was entrusted to TaK Architects, under the leadership of their lead architect, Marek Tichý, who has devoted himself for many years to blending contemporary and historical architecture.
His vision was not just to restore the original hotel, but to display the old parts of the building in a new light, to expand the hotel and connect it with the city and to find out more about the project, Tichý provides a unique insight.
I wanted to rediscover and develop the building’s original concept as a synthesis of architecture, art, and design. It was not just about physical restoration, but about creating something contemporary that paid homage to Karel Filsak’s architecture and also moved it forward – both physically and in terms of meaning.
One of our key principles was to respect the material dialog of concrete, glass, and wood, which dominates the entire building, while working hand-in-hand with artists and designers, just as it was with the original design.
Another key principle was to try to “democratize” the whole site – by which I mean to open the hotel up to the city, its surroundings, and public space. So we devised a project connecting the interior with the exterior, the private with the public, the original with the new.
And the result is a layered whole, where every detail (from the facade to the interior) has been meticulously designed and implemented, and the extent and ambition of the renovation goes far beyond normal reconstruction projects.
As an architect, I approached the reconstruction with huge amounts of respect for the original work and tried to preserve everything of value, despite the building being in very poor condition.
In some parts we had to perform complete restoration, but we always tried to maintain a balance between authenticity and modern requirements. We managed to restore the original light fixtures and wooden sculptures, for instance.
If you take the reconstruction of the legendary ceramic façade by Zbyněk Sekal, although we could only preserve a minimum amount of the original, years of work went into ensuring completely authentic reproduction of his work and the visual impression.
We also restored the reinforced concrete caisson ceiling of the Grand Ballroom designed by Jan Šrámek, with the original glass chandeliers by René Roubíček.
So this pretty much illustrates our approach: look for ways to preserve important elements of the architecture and find the right place and significance for them in the overall design, which is now fully contemporary and new in many respects.
We could not have done it, though, without the assistance of our tried and trusted partners, for instance Metrostav and David Vlasák’s group. It really has been a joint effort.
When the hotel was first conceived, it was supposed to be a project to celebrate Czechoslovak architecture and art, but in many respects.
it remained unfinished and, above all, historically underappreciated, because the idea of cultural and social sharing was suppressed by Normalization, the reversion from the liberal changes of the Prague Spring to hard-line Communism after the Soviet invasion in 1968.
Normalization was the reason why many of the authors and creators of the building were not named. It was only after we started our research preparation that we began to discover exactly how far it had gone.
We came across all sorts of stories about how people had contributed and, above all, about the personal connections between architects and artists, testimonies about their combined generational creation.
So, it seemed only logical to invite other renowned artists and designers to contribute, to combine our contemporary architectural and artistic forces, just as our predecessors had done, and to create something to reflect our own generation.
It makes me really happy for the whole team – for my wife, who was an important part of that team, for my colleagues and for everyone who was involved in the project. It was a wonderful experience.
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