Josef Karel Říha (1893-1970)

After studying Prague technology, he worked in the studio of Jan Kotěra. From 1923 he was an independent designer. His first designs were still in the spirit of the aesthetics of the national style; later, however, he stripped the facade of decor and arrived at purism and subsequently functionalism. In the 1920s and 1930s, he dealt with the issue of quality cheap housing and designed a number of residential buildings (typical family houses built in a number of housing estates in Subcarpathian Russia, apartment buildings in Ostrava, Pilsen, Prague). He also dealt with public buildings (Ferra's office and department store, the Palace of the Mining and Metallurgical Company with the Vlasta Buriana Theater). Probably the most famous building is his own villa in Prague, mentioned in period magazines as an example of modern architecture.