Petr Kropáček

The Prague architect and playwright Petr Kropáček was an ardent follower of the latest styling trends in architecture during the first third of the 20th century. He led an active social life and was even one of the leading figures attempting to reform Czech theatre before the First World War. Today however, he is one of the mostly forgotten Czechoslovak artists of the 20th century.

After graduating at the Czech Technical University in 1913, Kropáček, a peer of Josef Gočár and Pavel Janák, became a follower of Cubism. Under its influence he carried out designs for architecture (bank and house gables in Pardubice), but also for several items of furniture, which were exhibited in 1917 at an exhibition held by members of the Association of Artists Mánes. He worked at Pražské umělecké dílny (Prague Art Workshops) where he attempted to modernize the craft of furniture production.

After the First World War, together with his family, he spent some time in Argentina, Bolivia, and later, in Mexico where he built houses for plantation workers. However, his attempts at settling abroad were unsuccessful and he returned to Prague in 1920. There, he founded an architecture design office concentrating primarily on design projects for apartment blocks and schools, all featuring the simple, clean lines of Purism.

One of the most prestigious contracts which Kropáček won was that of a design project in 1930 for a villa for the future president Edvard Beneš in Sezimova Ústí. However, his austere design, devoid of ornamentation, was never carried out as Kropáček committed suicide the following year and the project was significantly modified by the landscape architect Otakar Fierlinger, who gave the building its marked “Southern” style.

Alongside his activities in the field of architecture, Kropáček was also known for his literary and theatre work. He worked as a director and stage designer with the amateur theatre company at the drama branch of the Akademikové vinohradčští society (1910) and at the Lyrické Theatre (1911). Under the pseudonym Pavel Neri he was the cofounder of the Theatre Umění (1911-1914), a society inspired by the reformist trends of European Modernist drama at the turn of the century, which was attempting to become the definitive scene of the Modernist Symbolist trend. Together with other colleagues at this theatre (e.g. the architect Ladislav Machoň), he created distinctive, experimental stage designs, attempted to break away from the traditional concept of stage layout, etc. He wrote the play Stavba (Building) and the comedy Mystifikace (Mystification), as well as a range of travel tales.
 

1922
Jubilee Palace on the spa premises (significantly modified in the 1920s)
Masarykovo Square 6, 533 41 Lázně Bohdaneč

1924–1926
Apartment block
Jankovcova 68/37, Prague-Holešovice

1925–1926
Primary school for Czech minority
Zahrádka 26, 330 35, Zahrádka u Všerub

1926–1929
Apartment blocks
Sudoměřská 1649/29, 1650/31, 1651/33, Prague-Žižkov

1927
Apartment blocks
Žerotínova 1641/47, 1642/49, Prague-Žižkov

1928
Local State Girls' School
Kuzmányho 6, Košice, Slovakia

1928–1929
Apartment block
Trojanova 336/7, Prague-New Town

1929
Adaptations to the “Komorní divadlo” (theatre) in Hotel Centrál (since removed)
Hybernská 1001/II, Prague-New Town

1930
Villa for President Edvard Beneš (not implemented)
Sezimovo Ústí, Dr. E. Beneše 201

1930–1931
Tyrša Schools
Mánesova 1526, 470 01 Česká Lípa