Jan Kotěra

• Name — Jan Kotěra • Born — 18 December 1871 • Birthplace — Brno, Moravia, Austria-Hungary • Died — 17 April 1923 • Place of death — Prague, Czechoslovakia • Known for — Architecture

Kotěra was born in Brno in Moravia, Austria-Hungary to a Czech father and German-speaking mother. He studied architecture in Vienna during the waning days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire under the Viennese master Otto Wagner. Kotěra returned to Prague in 1897 to help found a dynamic movement of Czech nationalist artists and architects centered on the Mánes Union of Fine Arts. Strongly influenced by the work of the Vienna Secession, his work bridged late nineteenth-century architectural design and early modernism. Kotěra collaborated with Czech sculptors Jan Štursa, Stanislav Sucharda, and Stanislav's son Vojtěch Sucharda on a number of buildings. As a teacher, Kotěra trained a generation of Czech architects, including Josef Gočár, who would bring Czech modernism to its pinnacle in the years leading up to the Nazi occupation in 1939. Kotěra was one of a number of Czech architects to design the "Bata houses" and Bata shoe factory at East Tilbury, Essex, England. These are considered Modernist landmarks of industry and a company town.

• Museum of Eastern Bohemia in Hradec Králové, (1908–1912) • Peterka House, 12 Wenceslas Square, Prague (1899–1900) • National House, Prostějov • Trmal Villa - an early rustic villa in Prague • Villa of Tomáš Baťa in Zlín • Faculty of Law of Charles University in Prague (1924–1927) • Two monuments for members of the Perutz family at the New Jewish Cemetery

• Illustration — Museum of Eastern Bohemia, Hradec Králové • Illustration — National House, Prostějov • Illustration — Baťa's villa, Zlín • Illustration — Faculty of Law, Prague • Illustration — Bust in Prague