Beech Table
Zbyněk Hřivnáč for the Hotel Praha, 1970s

A beech table designed by Czechoslovak designer, Zbyněk Hřivnáč, during the 1970s for the Hotel Praha. 

Commissioned by the Communist Party in Czechoslovakia, construction began on the Hotel Praha in 1975. Beyond hosting the communist delegation, one of the salient aims of the Hotel was to entertain and impress foreign visitors. 

Amidst a backdrop of austerity in the years prior to the Velvet Revolution, the Hotel was an architectural emblem created by some of the leading architects and designers in the former communist state. The colossal, curved building covered 9800 square-meters and comprised 136 rooms, a restaurant, swimming pool, and bowling alley, before being demolished in 2014. 

This table was designed by Zbyněk Hřivnáč, one of the salient contributors to the Gesamtkunstwerk that was the Hotel Praha. The piece is imbued with a quiet monumentality, a trait indicative of much of the furniture designed for the hotel, even in smaller pieces. For instance, the roundel at the end of each leg closely echoes Antonín Hepnar's designs of circular reliefs on rotating panels in the Hotel's dining room, and the shadow gap running beneath the edge responds to the linearity and grandeur of the hotel's architecture.

Specifications:

Designer: Zbyněk Hřivnáč (b.1932)
Design Period: 1970-1980
Materials: Beech
Height: 73cm
Width: 42cm
Depth: 85.5cm