Architect Vladimír Karfík - Zlín and Bratislava

The lecture by Nina Bartošová will present the work of Vladimír Karfík (1901 – 1996), an exceptional architect of the Czech and Slovak architectural scene, focusing on his creative period during his time in interwar Zlín and post-war Bratislava. The lecture will touch upon not only well-known buildings but also the lesser-known works of the architect, bringing Karfík closer not only as an architect but also as a prominent personality. The lecture will take place on March 22, 2018, at the Faculty of Architecture of the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, in room No. 117 at 4:00 PM.
The lecture, which is one of the outputs of research supported by public sources in the form of a scholarship from the Arts Support Fund, addresses the overall personality of the architect and his work, in which, apart from industrial buildings, there are school buildings, administrative structures, residential objects, as well as urban design proposals. The research reflects the architect's time with Baťa, which constitutes a key part of Karfík's work, and seeks to identify his influence even in his later works after arriving in Bratislava. However, Karfík's legacy lies not only in architectural projects; during the time he spent in Bratislava, he excelled primarily as a professor at the Faculty of Architecture of the Slovak Technical University in Bratislava (formerly the Slovak University of Technology), where he worked from 1946 to 1971. His pedagogical influence has significantly impacted dozens of his students, who still identify with his "school" today. For this reason, the research also addresses a more personal profile of the architect, either through the published texts of his students or through personal interviews, including conversations with his family members.
The starting points for the research were provided by materials found in the State District Archive in Zlín, the State Archive in Prešov, as well as in the unprocessed personal collection of the Brno City Museum archive, which contains not only documents from the Zlín period (1930 – 1946), Bratislava (1946 – 1978), and Malta (1978 – 1982), but also partial information regarding Karfík's practice with the prominent Swiss architect Le Corbusier in Paris, or his work with Frank Lloyd Wright in the United States. Plans for the objects that Karfík designed after World War II, upon arriving in Bratislava for the Dynamit-Nobel Plant (Peace Plant), are primarily held by the Archive of the City of Bratislava. An important source of information was also Karfík's autobiography, published interviews, as well as scientific articles, period press, and the architect's own texts and publications. A personal dimension was brought by several interviews with the architect's family members and his former students.

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