<p>The architect and designer Růžena Žertová has passed away</p>

During the night of October 4 to 5, 2019, the Brno architect and designer Růžena Žertová passed away at the age of 87. She made a name for herself in the domestic architectural scene primarily as the author of projects for the Prior department stores in Košice and Pardubice, as well as the Labe department store in Ústí nad Labem. She also excelled in numerous interior designs, as well as clothing accessories, jewelry, and lighting fixtures. Last year, her contribution to Czech architecture was recognized by the Ministry of Culture, which awarded her the Ministry of Culture Prize for long-term artistic merits in architecture for the year 2018. These days, the architect's work – specifically, the solution for the former Prior department store in Košice – is also commemorated by part of the exhibition ICONIC RUINS? Post-war Socialist Architecture in the V4 Countries, which is taking place at Tabačka Kulturfabrik and at the former Košice Prior.

A native of Ostrava, she spent her childhood and youth in Frýdek-Místek. After graduating from high school in 1951, she began studying architecture at the Czech Technical University in Prague, but after a year, she transferred to the Brno University of Technology. After several years spent mainly in the studio of Professor Bedřich Rozehnal, she graduated here in 1957. That same year, she joined Potravinoprojekt, and three years later, she moved to the State Project Institute of Commerce in Brno. During her more than twenty-year tenure at SPÚO, she designed – among other things – the aforementioned department stores.

“All these buildings, in whose designs Růžena Žertová helped shape the new form of this typological type, have significantly imprinted themselves onto the images of the mentioned cities. Over the past half-century, they have proven their qualities, as evidenced by the recent efforts to declare the former Košice and Pardubice Priors as immovable cultural monuments. In addition to these realized buildings, her unimplemented study of the Prior department store in Jihlava also stands out,” states architect and architecture historian Petr Klíma, editor and co-author of the publication Růžena Žertová – architect of buildings and objects.

According to Klíma, her later work is also remarkable, particularly her focus on residential buildings – following the design and realization of her own house in Brno from the late 1970s and early 1980s, Růžena Žertová continued in the post-November period with projects for family houses and residential complexes as well as urban studies. “Even in recent years – despite increasing health complications – she was developing a study for a community residential complex in Brno-Kohoutovice. The design for a residential quarter intended for young families, disabled persons, and lonely seniors she tried, selflessly and unfortunately unsuccessfully, to present to the city,” notes architecture historian Šárka Svobodová from FaVU VUT in Brno and the 4AM/Forum for Architecture and Media association.

As an architect, whose work combined an emphasis on rational functional and structural solutions with extraordinary artistic intuition and an unusual sense for material, Růžena Žertová also drew attention to herself as the author of interior designs, clothing accessories, jewelry, and lighting fixtures. She focused on their designs mainly in the 1970s and 1980s. “Given the scope and complexity of her work, her creative disposition makes her one of the key figures in Czech architecture, design, and artistic craftsmanship of the second half of the last century,” adds Klíma.

The first comprehensive presentation of the architect's work was at the retrospective exhibition Růžena Žertová: architect / designer / artist at the Museum of the City of Brno in 2013. In addition to the Ministry of Culture Prize, Růžena Žertová also received the Gold Medal of VUT in Brno (2009) and the City of Brno Award in architecture and urbanism (2013). In 2008 and 2018, she was also nominated for the Honorary Award of the Czech Chamber of Architects. Architecture was also pursued by Růžena Žertová's brother Petr and her husband Igor Svoboda.