Floor-Standing Ashtray
Hotel Praha, 1970s

Description:

A floor-standing ashtray, designed for the Hotel Praha during the 1970s. 

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. 

Owing to the project's uneasy political legacy, few pieces survived the demolition of this project in 2014. 

This floor-standing ashtray perfectly encapsulates the Brutalist elegance of the sprawling hotel complex. Part steel, part wood, the circular inset details echo the wood panelling used throughout the hotel which were designed by Czech architect, designer, and salient collaborator of the Hotel Praha, Antonín Hepnar. 

Whilst this unusual relic of the Hotel Praha will have been familiar with cigarette butts and cigar ashes, its new owner may prefer to use it as a sculptural planter in the spirit of the hotel's own Winter Garden (see image no.2). 

Specifications:

Design Period: 1970-1980
Materials: Beech and steel