Borek Sipek

Borek Sipek (1949-2016). After studying interior design at the School for Arts and Crafts in Prague (1964-68), he went to Germany to study architecture at the Kunsthochschule in Hamburg, and to Stuttgart to study aesthetics and philosophy. In 1983 he moved to the Netherlands and set up the design office that would provide a base for his subsequent explorations of Oriental and Occidental arts and crafts. His fateful encounter with Driade, which resulted in furniture, objects and ideas that would eventually find their way into the Eidos, Malastrana and Follies collections, also dates from his period. Sipek's systematic revisitations of traditional craft techniques and materials have won him not only several prestigious awards (including, in 1991, the Croix Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French government, and in 1993, the Prins Bernard Fons Prize for architecture and the applied arts), but also, and perhaps more importantly , an international reputation as an imaginative and versatile artist adept at playing off traditional certainties against modern(ist) uncertainties. When appointed Prague Castle Architect by Czech President Vaclav Havel, he worked from 1992 to 1996 on architectural detailing and other features of Joze Plecnik's orderly 1920s conception, redesigning the state rooms and creating new exhibition rooms. While maintaining his major interest in art, he has also worked increasingly as an architect.