Karel Tymich

The Functionalist architect Karel Tymich, a specialist in health and sanitary buildings, was born in the village of Lhota nad Moravou in the Litovel region into the family of Hynek Inác Tymich, a miller. Two years after Karel was born, the family moved to Prague. The architect eventually settled there with his wife Anna in Prague-Nusle.

Between 1910 and 1918, Karel Tymich studied architecture at the Czech Technical University in Prague. A year before the end of the First World War, he joined the army for three years. After completing his military service, he worked for seventeen years for the Provincial Department in Prague. From 1938 to 1948, he was employed by the Fénix Insurance Agency (later renamed the State Insurance Agency). During the late 1940s and early 1950s, he worked for the Prague Stavoprojekt enterprise. From 1951 to 1959, he worked for the Regional National Committee and Regional National Health Institute in Ústí nad Labem. He continued working even after retirement, finding employment with the Regional Centre for the Preservation of Heritage and Environment in Ústí nad Labem. He died in Terezín and is buried in Olšany Cemetery in Prague.

Tymich belonged to the circle of designers active in the Prague Functionalist review Stavba. He was a dedicated follower of Kotěra's principle of “Truthful Architecture”, which declared that a building should not hide its material substance, thus Tymich often left sections of “raw” brickwork exposed. Likewise, typical features of his designs are the relief partitioning of the mass of the building along with complicated silhouettes in the style of the Dutch De Stijl movement, a feature developed in Czechoslovakia by Jiří Kroha. Buildings from Kroha's Mladá Boleslav period (1922-1927) were a source of inspiration not only for Karel Tymich but for many other architects. Tymich and Kroha were well acquainted, both had been colleagues at the technical branch of the Provincial Governmental Committee, were both members of the Club of Architects and friends of the Socialistická scéna (Socialist Scene) association (later, renamed the People's Scene). In 1923, after carrying out work for this association, they and others were accused of causing bankruptcy through negligence. Kroha had entrusted Tymich with architectonic tasks associated with work for the performance of Antonín Dvořák's Nová Oresteia in the Industrial Palace in Prague. Building costs soared and the actors gave only two performances as audience numbers were low. Subsequently, the actors unsuccessfully attempted to sue the architects for loss of earnings.

In his architectonic work, Tymich concentrated on buildings for schools and sanitary and health institutes. He designed a wide range of hospital or hospital pavilions (Litomyšl, Kolín, Karlovy Vary), infirmaries, sanatoriums for treating tuberculosis and mental-health institutes. He was successful in design competitions – in 1925 he won third prize for a design project for the hospital treasury building in Olomouc and, in the same year, won third prize again for a design project for the municipal hall in Nové Benátky.
 

1927–1932
Hospital (in cooperation with other architects – František Maria Černý, L. Provaz)
Kolín

1930–1939
Hospital
Karlovy Vary

1931–1934
Provincial Tuberculosis Institute for Children
Cvikov

před 1934
College of Agriculture
Jilemnice