The exhibition in Plzeň highlights the legendary studio Sial and its creations

Plzeň - The new exhibition at the West Bohemian Gallery in Plzeň presents the significant influence and creation of the legendary studio Sial, or the Association of Architects and Engineers Liberec. The buildings from their workshop, which include the transmitter on Ještěd, the Prague department store Máj, or the Ještěd department store in Liberec, hold a significant place in the history of Czech and world architecture. The impetus for organizing the exhibition was the death of the association's leading figure, architect Karel Hubáček, last November. The exhibition is accessible in the Masné krámy until April 15.
    "Visitors will see 35 original plans and 14 period and new models of buildings, including the Ještěd transmitter, Czech Hut on Snezka, and others. We document twenty-five key projects on 33 large-format banners," said exhibition curator Jakub Potůček.
    The idea to prepare documentation about Sial emerged three years ago. The organizers are trying to take advantage of the time when it is still possible to document the memories of the participants.
    The birth of Sial is linked to the social climate of the 1950s and 1960s. "The rise of Stalinism in Czechoslovakia in 1948 led to the abolition of private studios; architects had to join state design institutes," said Potůček. In the Liberec Stavoprojekt, a group of architects and designers formed, which left before the Soviet invasion in August 1968 and operated under the name Sial until 1971. It was exceptional in that it was an association of various professions, Potůček noted.
    The work of Sial reflects postmodernism, environmental trends, efforts for the first energy-efficient buildings, and other progressive approaches. The leading personalities of the association, which sought solutions to architectural creation in technical innovations, included besides Hubáček, architect Miroslav Masák and statics Zdeněk Patrman and Václav Voda.
    According to the author of the exhibition's concept, Rostislav Šváchy, the fundamental contribution of Sial also lies in the inventive and free-spirited environment shielded by the personality of Hubáček. It was within this environment that a key work of Czech architecture from the second half of the 20th century was born - Hubáček's and Patrman's television transmitter with a hotel on Ještěd, which even before its completion received the prestigious Perret Prize. The building drew attention abroad as well as among domestic young architects, which led to the establishment of the Sial Nursery for talented graduates of universities in 1969. The studio was led by Masák, and during the 60s to 80s, it experienced the strongest generation of Czech architects. Several of them made their mark abroad after leaving the country.
    The exhibition in Plzeň also highlights other fates of Sial, buildings from its workshop, and proposals that remained only on paper. Part of the project is a four-hundred-page publication, which was declared the most beautiful Czech book of 2010 in the category of professional and scientific literature.
    The gallery also organizes commented tours, on February 14 and April 10.