Karfík, Vladimír

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Karfík, Vladimír (1901–85). Czechoslovak Modernist architect. He worked for Holabird & Root and F. L. Wright in the USA (1926–9), became influenced by Le Corbusier, and later became a member of CIAM. Head of the Architecture Department of the Bat'a Company from 1930, he designed new settlements on the Garden City principle at Zlín, Partizánske, and Otrokovice, but with the Modernist aesthetic well to the fore. Other designs for Bat'a included a hotel (1932) and 17-storey office-building in Zlín (1937–8—with a reinforced-concrete frame influenced by his work in Chicago), department-stores in Brno (1930) and elsewhere, and housing at Belcamp, MD, and East Tilbury, Thurrock, Essex (1932–8). He designed the first prefabricated residential buildings in post-war Bratislava.

Bibliography

Bauforum, xvii/103 (1984), 21–31;
Les'nikowski (ed.) (1996);
van Vynckt (ed.) (1993)