* personal profile:
After his studies in Prague, he went out into the world to gain experience. First, it was in 1925 in Paris with the architect Le Corbusier, and then he went to the USA to see the architect Wright. In the spring of 1930, existential uncertainty in America made him decide to leave for Zlín. Here, Tomas Bata gave him one of the first tasks to design the company's House of Services in Brno. He also designed high-rise buildings in Zlín - first he took over the completion of the hotel „Společenský dům“ (Community house) under construction (1932) and then it was the headquarters of the company's management, Building no. 21, generally called a „Skyscraper“ (1939). His activity in designing Bata foreign industrial and garden cities was significant – the first of them was East Tilbury in England (1933). After the war, Vladimír Karfík left Zlín for Bratislava, where he worked at the Technical University from 1946. He died in 1996 in Brno.
What Vladimír Karfík heard from Tomas Bata: To tell you the truth, at first, I didn't quite know what an architect was and what a builder was. Today I already know. An architect is a person who always wants to build monuments to himself. However, we need an architect who wants to serve us and other people as best he can. We are not interested in building monuments for architects.
Vladimír Karfík (SOkA Zlín, o. č. 3835, p. č. 4)
