Gridded Coffee Table
Hotel Praha, 1970s

Description:
A wood-framed, glass coffee-table 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 low coffee-table perfectly compliments the lounge armchairs from the Hotel, perfectly positioned to hold a cocktail glass or cigar tray. The gridded frame is strongly reminiscent of the rectilinear silhouettes of Josef Hoffman and the Vienna Secession, but tinged with the Praha's distinctive Brutalist monumentality. 

Specifications:

Design Period: 1970-1980
Materials: Beech