He built little, yet he became a legend.A big book about Jan Kaplický was published

He built little, yet he became a legend.A big book about Jan Kaplický was published

The London architect of Czech descent Kaplický, who lived in 1937 to 2009, found inspiration in many ways: in the shape of a shelled peanut, materials of jet aircraft, in the curve of the female breast or the glitter of the Audrey Hepburn.Round sheets have repeated significantly larger sizes on the facade of the Selfridges department store, which has become the dominant feature of Birmingham.

Kaplický was so sure of the visual effect of his 1999 building that he even convinced the investor not to disturb the facade even with the notice shield.His conviction was not enough many times, much of his visionary designs remained only on paper or in the form of a model - as an unfortunate octopus, as the Czech public called the Prague National Library's proposal.

Obchodní dům Selfridges stojí v anglickém Birminghamu. | Foto: Shutterstock

In Kaplický estate, however, the wide portfolio of other, internationally famous futuristic designs.It is their analysis, as well as the makeup of Kaplický's beginnings in London, where he emigrated in 1968, is one of the most interesting of the bulky book of Ivan Margolia.With the subtitle for beauty and for the future it was published by the Brno publishing house CPRESS at the end of last year.

Completion of Selfridges is one of the greatest achievements of the Future Systems Kaplice Studio, along with the Lord's Cricket Ground cricket stadium in London, which has been standing since 1995.A rounded covered tribune for journalists has won the highest British architectural award, Stirling Prize.

Kaplický's first woman and collaborator, architect Amanda Levte, who had a large share in both buildings, but considers the happiest period years before "when we had no jobs or employees and did not go to lunch to accidentally not miss an important phone call and potential order",As she wrote in a memorial article for the magazine Building, which Margolius reminds.

Floor aluminum

Seventy -seven -year -old Ivan Margolius has worked on Kaplický's book for more than ten years.A publication with a distinctly blue envelope is not a combed monograph that would deeply discuss one author.In addition to its own chapters, Margolius overprints also interviews that led with the people of Kaplický's surroundings.There were not few of them.

He met architect's former colleagues and bosses, his women and clients.Studied his diaries, sketches and photographs.In the book, friends from youth Pavel Bobek and Jaroslav Vokoun, with whom Kaplický emigrated with.There are British architects who employed a young man from Prague in their studies, famous for Norman Foster and Richard Rogers, and memories are also shared by colleagues and many years of girlfriend Eva Jiřičná.Furthermore, a partner with whom Kaplický founded the Future Systems Studio, David Nixon, and for example, a leading critic of architecture Deyan Sudjic, who had a London apartment from Kaplický in 1983.

Was composed of two housing units of neighboring houses that had different floor height.For their connection Kaplický suggested holes in the walls in the shape of giant key holes lined with aluminum and spanned ramp.Aluminum also covered floors and instead of the kitchen in the middle of one room was installed "culinary workstation" connected to the compact island of appliances with working, fiberglass board - but nothing hot could be built on.

The apartment immediately got on the pages of magazines."Every moment they called me from the Playboy magazine, they wanted to use the apartment as a location for a fashion photo shoot and offered me more and more money… and even more money and I said no.If I had to consent, Jana would be extremely pleased, "says Deyan Sudjic, who hits Kaplický's warmth to eroticism, which manifests itself in many of his sketches and designs.For example, the design of the French National Library in Paris, for which he won second place in the international competition, has the shape of a female bust.

Drawing is more than concrete

When Margolius describes the Kaplický personality at the beginning of the book, he describes his partnerships that were "conditioned by the boundless admiration and a certain submissivity".Women had to dress according to his taste, he said he liked to buy them with high heels and monochrome dresses.

Also friends and collaborators describe Kaplický uncompromising and claiming boundless loyalty.They also appreciate his visionary and immense diligence."He drew and sketched every day of his life.He knew that they wouldn't judge you according to how many cubic meters you would be off, but according to the originality of your thoughts, "says Amanda Levete.

Jan Kaplický (vpravo) a Amanda Levete s šéfem kriketového klubu v Londýně, pro nějž architekt navrhl oblou tribunu pro novináře. | Foto: ČTK/EMPICS

It was her arrival that changed the fate of the previously respected architectural office, which was the only British studio to cooperate with the American NASA, but built only a minimum of its designs.

Practical Levte perfectly complemented Kaplický's abilities: he designed and drew, she mainly made contacts, acted and arranged."It was a slow trajectory to turn the future system into an office that would give clients sure that we could build," recalls the architect, whose marriage to Kaplický, with which she has a son Joseph, ended up after 15 years in 2006.

The book of Ivan Margolia gives space to many "speakers" who emphasizes how much Kaplický has ahead of his organic designs.Some of the golden era of Future Systems mark its beginnings when almost nothing was built but suggested a lot.Futuristic sketches inspired by technological innovations, for example, from aviation and space research often published architectural magazines.Future Systems is renowned for professional circles.

Kaplický s Amandou Levete navrhli oblou tribunu pro novináře na londýnském kriketovém stadionu Lord's Cricket Ground. | Foto: Shutterstock

Fiasco from Letná

Of course, the monograph is also devoted to the return of Jan Kaplický to Prague, which in 2007 seemed to be triumphant.At that time he married for the second time, in Miller's villa from the famous functionalist Adolf Loos married film producer Eliška Fuchsová.In the same year he also won the international competition for the new National Library building, which was supposed to stand on Letná.

Margolius does not bring any new evaluation, nor do the embarrassing fiasco that followed the publication of the library's proposal on the octopus.

But from the mouth of several friends it is said that the politicization of a building that was undoubtedly avant -garde cost too much energy and stress.He may have contributed to a sudden death.Kaplický constantly defended his proposal with great vigor, but against the then President Václav Klaus also opposed.

Jan Kaplický v Senátu představuje svůj návrh nové budovy Národní knihovny na pražské Letné, květen 2007. | Foto: František Vlček

The delays and courts, which Czech architects from the HŠH studio also participated in Kaplický, continued in 2009.In January, the day his daughter was born, Kaplický collapsed from the maternity hospital and died directly on the street.

Margoli's book is published first in Czech, but it is clear that it is also intended for a foreign audience.Explaining Czech facts and historical contexts sometimes acts schematic and sometimes it is known that the author in the Czech Republic has not lived for many years.

Obal Jan Kaplický – Pro budoucnost a pro krásu. | Foto: Nadace Kaplicky Centre

Some information is repeated in various variations, which is due, among other things, by Margolius to people from Kaplický surroundings asks the same questions and interviews.

But there is no problem such a passage simply skip.Significant graphic design Alana Fariab Reading on the jump makes it easier.The unconventional book about Jan Kaplický is dense, filled with dozens of sketches, drawings of descriptions, directly encourages flip through and stop at different passages.Just as Jan Kaplický did, who, according to Eva Jiřičná's testimony, skipped a lot in the books and chose only inspiring.

Book

Ivan Margolius: Jan Kaplický - for the future and for the Krásnakladatelství CPRESS 2020, 352 pages, 1990 crowns.

Tags: