Zdeněk Řihák

Zdeněk Řihák (10 August 1924 – 15 August 2006) was a Czech architect. His works were primarily hotels in Czechoslovakia and are generally associated with Czechoslovak modernism in particular and Eastern Bloc modernism in general.

Life and career Zdeněk Řihák was born on 10 August 1924 in Napajedla, Czechoslovakia (today the Czech Republic), to Antonín and Marie Řihák. He studied in nearby Zlín in the art school of the sculptor Vincenc Makovský, and later at the Brno University of Technology. His first notable employment was with Potravinoprojekt in Brno.

One of Řihák's first architectural works, in 1955, was a school in Křenov, where the artist Bohumír Matal was invited to create a canvas for the entrance area. During this time, Řihák was employed with Potravinoprojekt and worked on a variety of projects in Czechoslovakia and around the world. Řihák's first large scale and notable project was the Hotel Continental in Brno, a fifteen story upscale hotel of quality compared to contemporary American hotels.

Later, Potravinoprojekt was reformed into the State Project Institute of Trade in Brno (SPITB), where Řihák continued to work. Following the Hotel Continental, Řihák worked primarily on hotels, with a focus on mountain hotels. During this time, he designed the Hotel Panorama and Hotel Patria in the High Tatras, the former of which has been called his most interesting work, and is considered a source of inspiration for modernist mountain hotels in Czechoslovakia.

Lukáš Kos, writing in the journal Architektúra & urbanizmus in 2021 has argued that Řihák's adoption of an individual style and western influences has made his work hard to understand by domestic contemporaries and in addition to the poor preservation of archives has ultimately resulted in a greater degree of obscurity for his work.

The Hotel Continental was originally planned to be a hostel to serve visitors to Brno's trade fairs, however in the late 1950s planning was shifted towards a more upscale "B*-class" hotel given the lack of accommodation in the city at the time.

As of 2024, the building continues to be used as a hotel under its original name, though it has seen modifications and renovations, notable of which is the addition of an underground parking garage. The hotel was constructed as a "B*-class" hotel for the 1970 for the FIS Nordic Ski Championships.

The hotel displays Řihák's background is sculpture, with a massing composed of stacked rectangular prisms supported by unevenly spaced steel supports located on top of the hotel's core amenities. After its construction, the hotel sparked controversy due to its placement as a high-rise in a conservation area, which has not seen significant tourism development prior to it. In 1970, the hotel made the pages of the international architecture magazine L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui.

The hotel is notable for its large size, and with its completion in 1973 and inauguration in 1976, it being Řihák's last major work. 1967–1970 Hotel Panorama in Štrbské Pleso. 1968–1973 Hotel Patria in Štrbské Pleso.