Towering over Liberec, the Ještěd Tower and Hotel looks like an alien ship. However, the idea of the Czech architects has little to do with space, and the project was born out of futuristic fascination with the 1960s. Rising 94 m, the building is also a rare example of combining technical infrastructure with a hotel function, and its location at the top of Ještěd Mountain guarantees incredible views. Interestingly, the tower is one of the most popular buildings in the Czech Republic and a sign of the 1960s.
Visionary
Originally, there were buildings of a 19th-century chalet on the Jeszted, but in 1960 the wooden and stone buildings burnt down. The owners of the burnt-out chalet agreed to cooperate with the Radio Board in Prague, which commissioned the construction of a TV tower with a hotel and restaurant. Initially, the structure was not supposed to be very different from other such infrastructural structures, but architect Karel Hubáček had a slightly different idea. Taking advantage of the political liberalisation of Czechoslovakia in the early 1960s, Hubáček pushed other architects away from the project and began to implement his vision.
The visionary architect wanted something new, a new architecture based on modern technologies that would improve the function but also the aesthetics of the buildings of the future. Although the high-tech style emerged a decade later, Hubáček had already developed the nucleus of this aesthetic in the early 1960s, which is why the Jeszted Tower is an incredibly high-tech building that still serves its purpose today.
The pinnacle of aesthetics
Located at an altitude of approximately 1012 m, the structure resembles a natural extension of the summit. This shape is a one-piece hyperboloid that perfectly withstands the harsh weather conditions at the top of the mountain. The conical structure stands on a large cylindrical base housing the entrance and restaurant. In turn, the towering 94m cone has been lined with anodised aluminium, but it is not the metal that is responsible for the strength of the structure. Interestingly, the upper floors are covered with laminated panels and fibreglass rods that do not interfere with the tower’s signal.
The entire building is based on a strong reinforced concrete core. This is not just a structural element, but also an integral part of the building’s aesthetics. Wrinkled, wavy, swirling concrete adorns the walls of the first floors. What’s more, glass hemispheres by prominent sculptors Stanislav Libensky and Jaroslava Brychtova are embedded in the walls. The sculptures are meant to symbolise meteorites embedded in the rock. This element corresponds well with the stone wall outside.
A staircase winding around the core leads to the further floors. The tiled corridors of this section emphasise the elegance of the slightly more private area of the building. The partitioning grille made by Jaroslav Klápštěgo, which is like a modernist painting, is also an important element. The upper floors house the restaurant, the TV tower service rooms and the hotel area. The rooms on the fourth floor, on the other hand, can accommodate a maximum of 56 people.
High-tech
It is worth mentioning that neither the shape itself nor the reinforced concrete core would hold the building under such extreme conditions. Normally, the wind at the summit reaches speeds of 20 to 40 km/h, but very strong gusts could overturn such a tall structure. For this reason, engineer Zdeněk Patrman designed a large pendulum to counteract the building’s tilting. This technology is nothing more than a tuned mass damper, a mechanism known from the world’s tallest buildings. Interestingly, modern large dampers only came into use in the 1970s, while the Czechs were already using the pendulum to stabilise the building in the 1960s.
Despite the difficult end of the decade for Czechoslovakia, the construction was completed, although the tower waited until 1973 to open. Hubáček’s dream of high-tech architecture came true in the following decade, and his tower became an immortal example of the ambition of Czechoslovak design. Notably, the architects, engineers and artists managed to combine futurism with the natural terrain. What’s more, the tower has seeped into Czech culture through its conical shape, which can be seen, for example, in the flag of the Liberec region.
Source: UNESCO
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