Karel Lhota

Karel Lhota was a secondary-school instructor as well as an interior architect and stage designer. With his wide range of interests, he soon emerged as a significant personality not only in architecture and urban planning, but also in theatre, set design, the fine arts, and other cultural activities. The professional career of Karel Lhota always inclined in the direction of theoretical and critical work, which eventually overshadowed his architectural practice. Lhota himself regarded his main achievements as those of a pedagogue, and subordinated his other activities to this end. Lhota's critical writings were primarily published in the professional journal Architekt SIA and the popular weekly Pestrý týden; his most extensive single body of articles is the series on residential design published in 1933 in the latter magazine. All of Lhota's writings on architecture date from his most significant period for realised work – the period when he collaborated with Adolf Loos in his realisations in Plzeň and Prague, and later (after 1933) with his individual realisations of buildings in Náchod and Vysoké nad Jizerou.