František Lydie Gahura

František Lydie Gahura ( born October 10, 1891 in Kudlov; † September 15, 1958 in Brno / Brno) was a Czech architect and visual artist.

Life and work

Gahura trained as a plasterer and studied from 1910 to 1914 sculpture at the Art School in Prague. From 1914 to 1917 he studied architecture at Josef Plečnik and 1919-1923 by Jan Kotera. It was subsequently Gahura house architect of the Bata company in his home town of Zlín, where he worked until 1946.

Gahura combined artistic sensibility with the new tendencies of rationalism and functionalism in architecture. From about 1919 - still clearly influenced by expressionism - Gahura be turned over placement of Kotera to the ideas of Le Corbusier and found in Tomáš Bata the ideal partners and clients. Gahuras Best Buildings in Zlín are characterized by modular, transparent skeleton construction. Less convincing appear its box-like houses. Gahuras portrait sculptures by the brothers are held in Bata conventionally realistic way. Gahura put his theoretical Überzeugungene in the book Estetika down architektury ( 1943).

Because of his close contacts with the family business Bata had Gahura 1946 his workplace in Zlín leave and worked subsequently in Brno. His life was overshadowed by the tragedy of the loss of two children by a hereditary disease. His final resting place he found in the forest cemetery Zlín.

Works (selection)

• Hall Zlín, 1920-1923
• Church of Sts. Anthony of Padua in Míškovice, 1922-1927
• Bata Hospital, Zlin, 1927-1936 ( co-author)
• Hospital Zlín, 1927-1930
• Department store Bata, Zlín, 1929-1932
• Masaryk School Zlín, 1928
• Villa Dr. Sazel, Trenčín, Slovakia 1929-1930
• Waldfriedhof Zlín, 1930-1932
• Great Movies, Zlín, 1931-1932