Leading Czech architect Jan Kotěra died 100 years ago
Kotěra was an internationally-recognised practitioner of modern architecture, straddling the boundaries between contemporary art nouveau and modern functionalism. He left an indelible mark on many towns and cities across Czechia.
Born in Brno, Jan Kotěra left at the end of the 19th Century to study architecture in Vienna, where he was heavily influenced by his professor Otto Wagner, a pioneer of modern architecture. Thanks to Wagner, Kotěra also met his contemporaries Jože Plečnik, Josef Hoffmann, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Joseph Urban, and another famous Brno native – Adolf Loos, who all went on to become well-known architects.
Coming home
Kotěra’s first architectural project after returning to Czechia was designing the facade of Peterkův dům on Wenceslas Square in Prague. It was one of the first examples of art nouveau architecture in the Czech lands.
The monumental Museum of Eastern Bohemia in Hradec Králové, the Laichter house in Prague’s Vinohrady district, and the National House in Prostějov also number among his great contributions to the Czech architectural landscape. He is also the architect behind the Garden City in Louny, one of the oldest examples of a garden city in Czechia.
A change of gears
Towards the end of his life, Kotěra gravitated more towards neoclassicism, for example in his design of the Faculty of Law at Prague’s Charles University.
Kotěra also designed modifications to President Masaryk's castle apartment, and the president even asked him to design further modifications to the exterior of the building and the castle surroundings. By this time, however, Kotěra was ill and had to turn down the offer. His former Vienna contemporary and fellow student of Otto Wagner, the Slovene architect Jože Plečnik, was chosen as his replacement.
Kotěra’s gifted pupils
At the beginning of the 20th century, Kotěra was going from one masterpiece to the next. He was offered a professorship at the Prague Academy of Fine Arts in 1910, which he accepted, and proceeded to train the next generation of famous architects.
Among his students were figures such as Josef Gočár, Otakar Novotný, and probably the most prolific architect of the time, Adolf Foehr, along with many others who went on to establish themselves as important art nouveau and modernist architects of the interwar period.
