Zdeňka Vydrová

Zdeňka Vydrová studied at the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Technology in Brno. After graduating, she was employed with Stavoprojekt Brno at the studio of the architect Viktor Rudiš. In 1991, she founded her own studio and, a year later, started work as council architect in Litomyšl. Her unobtrusive efforts to develop Litomyšl's architectonic culture became her life work and earned her the Minister of Culture Award in 2016.

She was introduced to her work in Litomyšl by the then mayor Miroslav Brýdl and has earned the trust of successive mayors. Thanks above all to Zdeňka Vydrová the best Czech architects were engaged from the early 1990s to design Litomyšl's appearance. Initially, they were the architects from the association Obecní dům Brno, of which Vydrová herself is also a member. However, the circle of designers widened and designing a house in Litomyšl became a question of prestige.

However, Brýdl and Vydrová and her architects only gradually gained the trust of the town's inhabitants and national heritage workers, and there were often disputes. One such example was a design project for a department store in Smetanovo Square by Josef Pleskot's studio which won the design competition in 1992. However, local inhabitants criticized its insensitiveness to its historical surroundings, and the national heritage institute forbid its construction outright (01-70). Nevertheless, in the latter half of the 1990s, Litomyšl inhabitants, thanks to some convincing designs, started to identify with the construction activities of their mayor and the council architect. Zdeňka Vydrová's aim has always been to create a living town where its historical structure is complemented with present-day architecture of equal quality. She always considers the solution of specific areas within a wider perspective, having the interests of the town as a whole at heart.

Zdeňka Vydrová's activities as council architect are varied, apart from organizational activities and co-ordinating and directing a range of objectives, she is in charge of spatial and minor urban planning. The architect has completed and modified Litomyšl's 1996 land-use plan, is working on the building activity plans for the Řetízek quarter (1999) and the U Nemocnice residential quarter (2004). She is also the author of the urban layout of the bus station which was, together with the grocery store, undertaken by the RAW design studio in 2007.

Within the framework of her own architectonic practice, Vydrová often co-operated with the design studio Rudiš + Rudiš. For example, she participated in the project of a care-home in Litomyšl (1996) or modifications to the G Pavilion at the Brno Trade Fair Centre (also 1996). She also participated with Rudiš + Rudiš and the architect Ivan Koleček on carrying out the reconstruction of the Museum of Applied Arts in Brno (2000-2001). However, she has few of her own independent designs. In 2006, a former farm building on the outskirts of Břeclav was reconstructed to serve as a family home according to her designs, with her most distinctive design project being the modestly-sized new Galerie Pakosta below the Chateau Hill (01-GP).

1993
Litomyšl Town Information Centre, Smetanovo Square 72, Litomyšl

1996
Care-home, Litomyšl (in cooperation with Rudiš + Rudiš)
Reconstruction and completion of G Pavilion, Brno (in cooperation with Rudiš + Rudiš)

1999
Building activity plan Řetízek, Litomyšl

2000–2001
Reconstruction of Museum of Applied Arts in Brno, Husova 14, Brno (in cooperation with Viktor Rudiš, Martin Rudiš and Ivan Koleček)

2004
Urban study for “U Nemocnice” residential quarter Litomyšl

2005
Urban layout for bus station – Bělidla, Litomyšl

2005–2007
Conversion of mill, Velké Opatovice

2006
House reconstruction, Břeclav

2006–2007
Footbridge and new entrance to trade fair grounds, Brno