Václav Rohlíček

Václav Rohlíček graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the Czech Technical University in Prague, where he was taught by Antonín Engel, Antonin Ausobský, or Vladimír Krch. In 1949, he joined a construction company in Hradec Králové, Stavoprojekt. One of his first projects was the landscape plan of the Orlická kotlina housing estate, based on the ideal of semi-open blocks with parks and playgrounds in the middle. In 1948–1957, Václav Rohlíček, Jan Rejchl and František Steiner designed the children’s hospital pavilion, which followed the avant-garde tradition. In 1957–1959, Rohlíček made changes to Josef Gočár’s 1931 design of the girls’ elementary and secondary school built in the Labská kotlina housing estate. The building was made smaller and its layout changed to meet the current needs. The construction was covered with ceramic tiles to fit into the set of buildings made of unplastered bricks. Under the leadership of Jan Rejchl, Rohlíček collaborated with Břetislav Petránek, František Křelina and Jan Zídka on the city planning. In 1956–1959, he designed the houses No. 1250–1252; in 1965–1974, he joined František Steiner to design the smaller housing estate of Malšovice – South [1]; in 1968–1976, he designed the Věkoše housing estate with 887 flats. [2] In 1958–1959, Rohlíček collaborated with Břetislav Petránek on the landscape concept of the Labská kotlina II housing estate. In 1960–1965, he joined Jan Rejchl to design the modernist interiors of the civic house in Ústí nad Labem. [3] Václav Rohlíček also dealt with the restoration of terraces and staircases in the slopes of the old town of Hradec Králové, including the cascades in Žižkovy sady Park and the staircase leading from the theatre through the former seminary garden [4] or the Kozinka staircase next to the local brewery. [5] In the 1980s, Václav Rohlíček redesigned the kindergarten designed by Josef Gočár into a school canteen: the loggia was glazed and the high chimney, which had a dominant role in the composition of the school buildings, knocked down. However, architectural historian Jakub Potůček considers this adaptation insensitive, unlike the reverent adaptation of girls’ schools from the 1950s. [6]
 

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Notes:
 

[1] Coll., Encyklopedie města Hradce Králové, vol. N–Z, Hradec Králové 2011, p. 727.
 

[2] Ladislav Zikmund-Lender, Struktura města v zeleni: Moderní architektura v Hradci Králové, Hradec Králové 2017, p. 245
 

[3] Ladislav Zikmund-Lender, Tři generace architektů: Václav st., Václav ml., Jan a Milan Rejchlovi, Hradec Králové 2012, p. 79
 

[4] Coll., Encyklopedie města Hradce Králové, vol. N–Z, Hradec Králové 2011, p. 727.
 

[5] Kozinka v novém, Nové Hradecko, 1971, No. 34, p. 5
 

[6] Jakub Potůček, Hradec Králové: Architektura a urbanismus 1895–2009, Hradec Králové 2010, p. 119