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Kroha, Jirí
(b Prague, 5 June 1893; d Brno, 7 June 1974). Czech architect, theorist, graphic artist, designer, teacher and writer. He graduated in architecture from the Czech Technical University, Prague, where he studied with Jan Koula (1855–1919), Josef Fanta and Antonín Balsánek (1865–1921). While still studying he became a member of the Mánes Union of Artists. During the period 1921 to 1928 he practised in Mladá Boleslav and in 1925 he was appointed Professor of Architecture at the Technical University in Brno. At the same time he was a founder-member of Socialistická scéna (Socialist Stage), for which he worked as stage manager, set designer and graphic artist. Kroha’s early work was based on a distinctive conception of Cubism, as in the Crematorium in Pardubice (1919), and Expressionism, as in the Catholic church, Prague-Vinohrady (1918–19), which he formulated in a series of extremely varied competition designs for buildings that were full of tension and explosiveness. His works at Mladá Boleslav, especially the State Technical College (1922–6) in which its multi-functionalism is expressed in the dynamic composition of mass, and the rebuilt Hotel Venec (1925–6), document his subsequent progress through neo-Plasticism to a pure, dynamic Functionalism, which is seen in the North Bohemian Exhibition Hall (1928) there as well as in his own house (1928) and a house in the New House exhibition site (1927–8) in Brno.
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