Josef Gočár

Although Gočár found the application of his skills mainly in architecture, his designs for furniture, clocks and lamps from 1911 to 1920 in many cases defined Czech Cubism as an independent style. In addition to his architectural and design work, Gočár's role as a university teacher was important, influencing the emerging generation of functionalist architects. After the death of Jan Kotěra, a leading figure in Czech modern architecture and also Gočár's unique teacher and colleague, he succeeded him in 1924 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, where he later served as rector. Josef Gočár and the architect Pavel Janák viewed furniture design as serious art, and therefore they also sought to change the public's view. For this reason, in 1912 they founded the Prague Art Workshops, which concentrated on the production of Cubist furniture and other utilitarian objects. The name of Josef Gočár is most often used in connection with Cubism. This new dynamic style was to be a means of bringing our architecture out of the crisis it was in at the beginning of the 20th century. Josef Gočár manifested the principles of the new architecture in the very centre of Prague in the project of the five-storey shophouse U Černé Matky Boží in Celetná Street, which replaced two original Empire houses. The new building, which stands directly on Královská cesta, became an example of the highly sensitive integration of new architecture into the historic buildings of the Old Town. The house is distinguished both by its distinctive cubist façade, which is defined primarily by bay windows, and by the Arts and Crafts elements that have been preserved both in the exterior and interior of the house. Other iconic Gočár's realisations from the cubist period that have gone down in the history of architecture include the Spa House in Lázně Bohdaneč, the Automatic Mills Building in Pardubice and the Legiobank in Prague na Poříčí, which, however, is already influenced by the national style, the so-called rondocubism. Another of Josef Gočár's important roles was his urban planning role. As an urban planner, he had a major influence on the image of Hradec Králové as an industrial city with a rare Gothic historical core. Gočár fully respected this and did not enter it. The urban plan included a regulating plan for the waterfront, a set of school buildings, a square and a system of outer traffic circuits with radials leading to the centre, between which residential districts alternated with parks. Hradec Králové represents his most extensive and comprehensive architectural work, as Gočár designed a number of public, administrative and residential buildings for Hradec in addition to the urban centre of the city. Thanks to Gočár, Hradec has become a unique and comprehensive example of a modern metropolis next to Zlín. Barbora Kovářová