How time etched away at authorship of the Hotel Thermal

Hotel Thermal in Karlovy Vary was built between 1967 and 1976 according to the designs of architects Věra Machoninová and Vladimír Machonin. Today, this brutalist building remains a dominant feature of the West Bohemian spa town. It is, however, growing old, and its owner, the Ministry of Finance, had long sought to renovate the building, to bring it up to date with modern fire, hygiene and guest comfort standards.

The architect Věra Machoninová got involved with the preparations for the hotel’s modernisation, claiming nobody could interfere with the interiors without her consent. Her argument was that she considered the copyrighted work to include not just the building itself, but also its interior furnishings, for which the Machonins designed original furniture, including chandeliers and wall decorations.

Our task was to talk it out with the architect, or in this case her legal representative, to explain that clinging to the existing character of the building failed to meet the needs of both the hotel operator and guests and didn’t make sense. Above all, this was not supported by copyright law itself, because a number of previous encroachments had already disturbed her work, meaning the interiors no longer met the parameters of the copyrighted work. They had lost their original uniformity. At the same time, one of the basic elements of an architectural copyrighted work is that it exhibits a unique and coherent concept.

Eventually, a compromise was reached. The sections still representing the original form, such as parts of the reception area or one of the bars, were preserved. But the rest will undergo the necessary renovation.