Karel Schmied

Architect Karel Schmied was born in Hradec Králové to the important painter and graphic artist Karel Schmied. After studying at the Realschule in Hradec Králové, he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps, but he was not accepted at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague enrolled at the Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering of the Prague University of Technology. His teacher was Jindřich Krise, a prominent architect of mainly civil buildings and an urban planner. After his studies, Schmied secured a placement in the Stavoprojekt company in Hradec Králové, which at that time was still forming as an independent workplace. He worked at the company until its delimitation after 1990. Karel Schmied became one of the most important architects working in Stavoprojekt between the 1960s and 1980s. His work had an extensive typological register: from civic amenity buildings, through small town-building projects and residential architecture to urban design for large, newly built-up areas. Schmied’s work went beyond the borders of the region: he also designed two prototype large-capacity labor union hotels in the Giant Mountains.
  

After 1990, together with Miloš Klár and Petr Halák, he founded the design company AKIA a. s. He designed more projects of buildings in the mountains and participated in the redevelopment of the center of Harrachov. After 2000, he collaborated with his son, also an architect, Karel Schmied Jr., in the revitalization of the campus in Hradec Králové. For his many years of service, he was awarded the Dr. František Ulrich Prize in Hradec Králové and, shortly before his death, the Josip Plečnik Prize awarded by the Architects’ Association.

The author would like to thank Karel Schmied Jr.

 

LZL