Otokar Fierlinger

Doc. Ing. arch. Otokar Fierlinger was not only the founder of modern Czech garden architecture but also a significant urban planner who was at the beginnings of Czech spatial planning. He studied civil engineering at the Technical University in Vienna. After practicing in several architectural offices, he entered public service in 1913 at the Governorate in Brno, later moving to the District Office in Olomouc. From 1919, he worked at the Ministry of Public Works, where he was appointed head of the department for urban planning and construction in 1934. Between 1920 and 1921, he was on a study trip in the USA, for example at the University of Ann Arbor in Michigan or at Harvard in Cambridge, where he became acquainted with current trends in urbanism, landscape planning, garden architecture, and the design of public spaces. He was also significantly influenced by the renowned F. L. Wright. Fierlinger became an expert and promoter of the Anglo-Saxon and American landscape school. He further developed his American experience (e.g. through frequent participation in international congresses), focusing primarily on the issue of recreational public spaces in cities, landscape and garden architecture, as well as regulatory and regional plans. In 1923, he was promoted to Doctor of Technical Sciences. In the first half of the 1920s, he also accepted membership in the executive committee of the International Federation for Housing and Urban Development in London. He contributed extensively to the daily press and architectural periodicals with his notes from international congresses and literature, addressing urbanism and regional planning both at a theoretical level and through his own case studies. Between 1930 and 1937, he was an associate professor of urban construction at the Academy of Fine Arts. The culmination of his efforts was the independent publication "Garden and Dwelling" (1938), in which he summarized modern trends and presented his own concept of garden and landscape architecture.
Due to the political career of his brother Zdeněk Fierlinger, Otokar also engaged in designing the renovations of villas and gardens of several Czech diplomats. His most significant achievement became his work for President Edvard Beneš in Sezimovo Ústí. Throughout the 1930s, the architect worked on the modifications of Beneš's gardens and their connection to the neighboring gardens of Ludvík Strimpl and his brother Zdeněk, resulting in a cohesive and still impressive park complex. Architect Fierlinger also dealt with the reconstruction of historical gardens – together with Pavel Janák, he reconstructed the garden of the Černín Palace and the Royal Garden at Belvedere. He also participated in the urban incorporation of the Baba housing estate in Dejvice into the green complex.
Otokar Fierlinger joined the resistance during World War II, organizing assistance for families persecuted by the Nazis and participating in the production and distribution of illegal publications. However, on September 8, 1941, the architect died prematurely after an unsuccessful operation.