Declaration of Participants of the International Conference on Urban Engineering 2015 in Karlovy Vary Regarding the Sale of the Thermal Hotel Swimming Pool

The Czech Chamber of Authorized Engineers and Technicians Active in Construction (ČKAIT) and the Czech Union of Civil Engineers (ČSSI), as long-term organizers of the International Conference on Urban Engineering, which has been held continuously for twenty years at the Thermal Hotel in Karlovy Vary,
against the sale of the unique open thermal swimming pool as a separate construction part of the Thermal hotel complex. The pool was placed on a rock above the hotel building in the 1970s. One third of the water in the pool was mineral.

It is one of the symbols of the spa town of Karlovy Vary and is inseparably linked to the modern hotel complex of the Thermal hotel, which was built in the functionalist style between 1967 and 1976 according to the design of Czech architects Vera and Vladimir Machonin. The Thermal hotel was designed by the Machonins from 1963 to 1969 for the purposes of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
The hotel complex is state-owned.



The idea to sell the hotel pool was introduced in early 2015 by the Czech Minister of Finance Andrej Babiš (ANO). Several investors have already expressed interest in the pool. The hotel’s website published a notice about the announcement of a public competition for the most suitable offer for closing a purchase contract on March 23, 2015. The results of the competition are to be announced on July 1, 2015.

Participants of the International Conference on Urban Engineering 2015 are not alone in the fight against the sale of the pool as a separate construction part. The city of Karlovy Vary also intends to ask the Czech Ministry of Culture to declare the complex of buildings of the Thermal hotel, including the buildings associated with the hotel, a cultural monument. They want to prevent and protect the state-owned Thermal hotel from possible demolition or privatization, or the sale of valuable land on which the pool is built. The mayor of the city, Petr Kulhánek, reminded in this context: “The Thermal hotel was conceived from the very beginning as a venue for the film festival and at the same time as a very luxurious hotel with comprehensive balneological care. It has operated this way to this day, and I believe it should be preserved this way in the future.”

According to architect Pavel Směták, the author of a recent retrospective exhibition on the work of the Machonins, the Thermal hotel complex is an excellent example of late modernism in post-war Czechoslovak architecture. The brutalist elements of the architecture refer to contemporary buildings in Britain and Scandinavia. A close connection between architecture and structural engineering characterizes the entire work of the Machonin couple, and the collaboration of architects and designers at the Thermal hotel is extraordinary.
Pavel Směták considers the connection between the building's exterior and interior to be exceptional. The blasted concrete used on the facade freely transitions to the surfaces of the walls in the hotel lobbies. The only boundary between the interior and the exterior is the large-format frameless glazing. The preserved interiors are a great example of contemporary interior design with a very distinct authorial fingerprint.
Heritage conservationists see the value of the Thermal mainly in its uniqueness. It is one of the most significant buildings in the brutalist style in the Czech Republic, along with Ještěd.

The Thermal hotel is already part of the Karlovy Vary city heritage zone, declared in 1992. Buildings in the zone are protected under heritage law. However, a cultural monument would have higher protection. While in the zone, the overall appearance of the buildings is preserved, the protection of a cultural monument is stricter, including the building's interior.

The chairman of ČKAIT, Pavel Křeček, addressed participants of the International Conference on Urban Engineering 2015 in support of preserving the Thermal hotel complex in Karlovy Vary: “We do not want complexes that have survived 40 years of operation as an architectural whole to be parceled out.”

Ing. Pavel Křeček, chairman of ČKAIT and Ing. Svatopluk Zídek, chairman of the ČKAIT Karlovy Vary Region, 353 234 634, karlovyvary@ckait.cz