Jan Kaplicky, Czech architect, dies at 71
Jan Kaplicky, the Czech-born architect who founded the firm Future Systems in London nearly three decades ago, has died at age 71 after collapsing on a Prague sidewalk. His designs (including the Selfridge's department store in Birmingham, England, above) were eternally innovative and typically controversial -- none more so than his proposed National Library for Prague, which was savaged by critics and politicians alike. Up until his death he was battling to get the library built.
Obituaries and reminiscences of Kaplicky are here, here, here and here.
The Future Systems website, full of renderings of the Prague library design in all its Day-Glo glory, is here.
And images of some of Future Systems' completed projects are after the jump.
-- Christopher Hawthorne
Photo: Richard Davies.
A Selfridge's detail. Credit: Flickr user dearbarbie
New press box for the Lord's Cricket Ground, London. Credit: Flickr user markhillary
Oxford Street facade, London. Credit: Flickr user stevecadman
No wonder the Bohemianns are in revolt, its a cookie monster, or one of Ronald McDonalds friends on steroids, gone Godzila. Come on now, there really is no room for humor in huge public architecture, the joke is always over way too soon. And this is just a Saturday morning kids TV show set, I expect Barney to be waving from the top at any moment, with the teletubbies. So much purple and yellow, is he a Prince fan?
Posted by: Donald Frazell | January 15, 2009 at 05:06 PM