Vladimír Machonin

   

  • architect

    Vladimír Machonin

  • Date of birth

    3. 2. 1920 Prostějov

  • Date of death

    12. 1. 1990 Prague
Vladimír Machonin enrolled at the Czech Technical University (ČVUT) in 1938. However, due to the closure of universities during the occupation, he was not able to finish his studies until 1949. While studying, he worked as an assistant to Karel Honzík at the Institute of Theory of Architecture (Ústav teorie architektury). From there, he continued to the Institute of Studies and Standardisation (Studijní a typizační ústav) after graduation. The beginnings of his practice in the field are thus connected more with theory and critique, as evidenced, among other things, by his involvement in the debate seeking an appropriate form of Czechoslovak socialist realism. In 1951, however, with his transfer to the State Design Institute (Státní projektový ústav), he moved towards working as a practising architect. In addition to his crucial meetings with Karel Prager and Jiří Kadeřábek, he also met Věra Větrovská (Machoninová), still a student at the time. They married in 1952 and formed a strong design duo. Although Machonin's entry into the Design Institute (Projektový ústav) plunged him into design practice, it did not mean a definitive farewell to the theory of architecture for him. In the following years, he kept returning to it in when formulating standard guidelines.

In the first half of the 1950s, Vladimír Machonin participated in several tenders for houses of culture. However, the design of the Trade Union House (Dům odborů), later the ROH House of Culture in Jihlava, became a major project for him and his wife in 1956. Their project won the first prize in the architectural competition, and after several revisions, it was brought to fruition in 1961. Until the end of the 1960s, a number of other more or less important competition entries followed. Of particular note is the success in the international competition for the design of the campus and service buildings of University College Dublin in 1964 (together with Věra Machoninová, Jiří Albrecht, Jiří Kadeřábek, and Karel Prager) and the competition for Hotel Thermal, and the festival cinema in Karlovy Vary, which was completed in 1977 according to the Machonins' project from the mid-1960s.

In 1967, an opportunity arose to break away from the influence of Stavoprojekt and establish a studio under the auspices of the Association of Design Studios (Sdružení projektových ateliérů). The major successes of the newly established Alfa studio, which was headed by Vladimír Machonin and in which he worked together with his wife, Věra, included winning the tender for the Kotva department store in Prague in 1969 and for the Czechoslovak embassy in Berlin in 1970. However, the Alfa studio did not live to see the grand opening of these completed buildings – it could only function in its original form until 1970, when the Association of Design Studios (Sdružení projektových ateliérů) was dissolved as a result of the events of August 1968. Moreover, the Machonins refused to sign their consent to the military invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops, which hindered their admission to the newly established Union of Architects (Svaz architektů) and at the same time prevented them from entering tenders and publishing their projects in official periodicals. In the 1970s, Vladimír Machonin designed the Prague housing estates in Lehovec and Kyje (completed in 1980), and together with Věra Machoninová, he also supervised the construction of the protracted projects designed back in the 1960s. According to Lukáš Beran, the architect’s last work was probably the design of a gymnasium building in Prague-Lhotka from 1979, published in Czechoslovak Architectin 1990 after the revolution.

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