Ladislav Machoň

28 April 1888, Prague – 22 December 1973, Prague

Ladislav Machoň studied architecture at the Prague Polytechnic (now Czech Technical University in Prague), under Josef Schultz and Josef Fanta. He worked in Jan Kotěra’s atelier. He travelled all over Europe. In 1917, he opened his own studio. In the 1930s, he worked in the State Regulatory Committee of the Capital City of Prague. He participated in many exhibitions both at home and abroad, and was a member of art groups. He was a member of the Architects’ Society, the Architects’ Club, the Chamber of Engineers, the Union of Architects of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and the Czechoslovak Republic, and of the Máne Association of Fine Arts. He was awarded the doctoral title. He was imprisoned in the 1950s for his political activities and released in 1960. Machoň was awarded the title of National Artist.

Ladislav Machoň’s artistic legacy is large and diverse. Apart from a large range of buildings, he also designed memorials, worked on the preservation of historic buildings, was an interior designer and a city planner. His style was close to classicism in its modern understanding, although he accepted influences from functionalism as well. His most important projects include public buildings in Pardubice (the old post and telegraph building, the court building and the financial office, a department store, a school, etc.), a part of the Faculty of Law of Charles University and its interior, a project which he took over from the deceased Jan Kotěra. He modified Clementinum in Prague for the purposes of the National Library. His projects outside the country include the Jan Amos Komenský in Naard (the Netherlands). Machoň also designed many apartment buildings and private villas for Czech artists and intellectuals (the villa of the Čapek brothers, the villa of the sculptor Otakar Španiel, as well as painter Alexandr Vladimír Hrstka, etc.).