Ivan Margolius (born 27 February 1947) is an author, architect and propagator of

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

culture and technology.

Life

Margolius was born in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

, son of JUDr

Rudolf Margolius Rudolf Margolius (31 August 1913 – 3 December 1952) was a Czech lawyer and economist, Deputy Minister for Foreign Trade, Czechoslovakia (1949–1952), and a co-defendant in the Slánský trial in November 1952. Imprisoned by the Nazis in the ...

, Deputy Minister for Foreign Trade, and Heda Margolius Kovály, Czech writer and translator, both parents being

Holocaust survivors Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no universally accep ...

. He attended primary and secondary schools there and started to study architecture at the Czech Technical University in Prague. Margolius left

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

in 1966 because of political persecution of his family. He settled in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

where he became a

naturalized citizen Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

in 1973 and where he completed his architectural studies at the Polytechnic of Central London. He practised architecture at

Yorke Rosenberg Mardall Yorke Rosenberg Mardall (Yorke, Rosenberg and Mardall, YRM) was a British architectural firm established by F. R. S. Yorke (1906-1962), Eugene Rosenberg (1907-1990) and Cyril Mardall (Sjöström) (1909-1994) in 1944.Melvin, Jeremy (1997). Obituar ...

Foster and Partners Foster + Partners is a British architectural, engineering, and integrated design practice founded in 1967 as Foster Associates by Norman Foster. It is the largest architectural firm in the UK with over 1,500 employees in 13 studios worldwide ...

, Koetter Kim and Associates and

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is an American architectural, urban planning and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings in Chicago, Illinois. In 1939, they were joined by engineer John Merrill. The fir ...

. Margolius co-operated extensively with

Jan Kaplický Jan Kaplický (; ; 18 April 1937 – 14 January 2009) was a Neofuturistic Czech architect who spent a significant part of his life in the United Kingdom. He was the leading architect behind the innovative design office, Future Systems. He was be ...

founder of

Future Systems Future Systems was a London-based architectural and design practice, formerly headed by Directors Jan Kaplický and Amanda Levete. Future Systems was founded by Kaplický and David Nixon after working with Denys Lasdun, Norman Foster, Renzo ...

. Margolius is an author of numerous articles and books on art, architecture, automobiles, design and history. In 2016 Margolius suggested to the Prague Council for a street to be named ‘Obětí totality’ (Víctims of totalitarianism) which was realised in February 2018 by naming in such a way the alley adjacent to the

Memorial to the Victims of Communism The Memorial to the victims of Communism ( cs, Pomník obětem komunismu) is a series of statues in Prague commemorating the victims of the communist era between 1948 and 1989. It is located at the base of Petřín hill, Újezd street in the ...

at Újezd, Malá Strana.

Published works

* ''Cubism in Architecture and the Applied Arts'', David & Charles, Newton Abbot & North Vermont 1979, . * ''Tatra – The Legacy of Hans Ledwinka'', SAF Publishing, Harrow 1990, (written with John G Henry) Cugnot Award of Distinction 1991. * ''Škoda Laurin & Klement'', Osprey Automotive, London 1992, (written with Charles Meisl) Cugnot Award of Distinction 1993. * ''Prague – a guide to 20th century architecture'', Ellipsis, London 1996, . * ''Church of the Sacred Heart, Jože Plečnik, 1922-33'', Architecture in Detail, Phaidon Press, London 1995, . * ''Automobiles by Architects'', Wiley-Academy, London 2000, . * ''Architects + Engineers = Structures'', Wiley-Academy, London 2002, . * ''Future Systems'', Zlatý řez, Prague 2002, , (written with

, Michaela Kadnerová and Jana Tichá). * ‘Art + Architecture’, ''Architectural Design'', no. 163, vol. 73, no. 3, guest editor, May/June 2003, . * ''Czech Inspiration – Česká inspirace'', , Praha 2005, , (written with

). * ''Reflections of Prague: Journeys through the 20th century'', John Wiley & Sons, Chichester 2006, . * ''Praha za zrcadlem: Putování 20. stoletím'', Argo, Praha 2007, . * ''Jan Kaplický Drawings'', Circa Press, London 2015, (written with Richard Rogers) International Deutsches Architekturmuseum Architectural Book Award, 2015. * ''Tatra – The Legacy of Hans Ledwinka'', new edition, Veloce Publishing, Dorchester 2015, , (written with John G. Henry, foreword by

Norman Foster Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Nor ...

and prologue by Erich Ledwinka). * Heda Margolius Kovály and Helena Třeštíková, ''Hitler, Stalin and I: An Oral History'', DoppelHouse Press, Los Angeles 2018 , , prepared for publication and translated by Ivan Margolius. * ''Tatra – Odkaz Hanse Ledwinky'', Argo, Praha 2020, , (Czech edition, written with John G. Henry, foreword by

, and prologue by Erich Ledwinka) * ''Jan Kaplický – Pro budoucnost a pro krásu'', CPress, Brno 2020, . Miroslav Ivanov Prize for Non-fiction Literature 2021. * ''Jan Kaplický - For the Future and For Beauty'', Edition Axel Menges, Stuttgart 2022, .

Awards

* 1991 Cugnot Award of Distinction, Society of Automotive Historians. * 1993 Cugnot Award of Distinction, Society of Automotive Historians. * 2014 Second Prize, British Czech and Slovak Association International Writing Competition. * 2015 International Deutsches Architekturmuseum Architectural Book Award. * 2017 First Prize, British Czech and Slovak Association International Writing Competition. * 2019 Honorary Silver Medal of Jan Masaryk. * 2021 Miroslav Ivanov Prize for Non-fiction Literature.

References

Literature

* Margolius Kovály, Heda (1997): ''Under A Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941-1968'', New York: Holmes & Meier, * Margolius, Ivan (2006): ''Reflections of Prague: Journeys through the 20th Century'', London: Wiley, * Bell, Matthew (2019): 'Auto-Biography - Ivan Margolius', ''The Automobile'', April 2019, Volume 37, Number 2, pp. 34 - 37.

External links