Borek Sipek - Henry IV - Sold

Borek Sipek
Enrico IV
glass
24 x 13.5 x 13.5 cm

Bořek Šípek (Prague, June 14, 1949 – Prague, February 13, 2016) was a prominent Czech architect and designer. He was known for his individual, unusual, colorful, and rich style. He experimented with unexpected and usually opulent forms. His glass sculptures, in particular, are widely known.

After studying at the Prague Academy of Fine Arts, he emigrated to Germany in 1968, the year of the Prague Spring. There he studied architecture in Hamburg and philosophy in Stuttgart. In 1979, he obtained his doctorate from Delft University of Technology. In 1983, he settled in Amsterdam, where he founded his own architecture and design studio. Following the Velvet Revolution in his homeland of Czechoslovakia, he opened a studio in his birthplace, Prague, in 1989.

After resettling in the Czech Republic, he was a professor of architecture and design at the Academy of Art, Architecture and Design in Prague from 1990 to 1998. From 2005 to 2012, he was a professor and dean at the Faculty of Art and Architecture of the Technical University of Liberec.

Bořek Šípek is said to be the father of "Neo-Baroque". His architectural works and other designs are known worldwide. He had offices in Amsterdam, Prague, and Shanghai.

Under the presidency of Václav Havel, he was the architect of Prague Castle. In Maastricht, he designed a glass sculpture at the entrance to the Maastricht University Library on Grote Looiersstraat.

Bořek Šípek was a Knight of the French Order of Arts and Letters.