(b Czechoslovakia, 3 March 1939). Czech architect and interior designer, active in London. She studied engineering and architecture at the University of Prague and received a Master of Arts degree from the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague, in 1967. She went to London for what was intended to be a brief visit in 1968, a few weeks before the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. Her stay became permanent, and she worked in London for the Greater London Council (1968-9), then for the De Soissons partnership (1969-80) and with David Hodge (1980-82). She worked on her own in 1982-5 and with Kathy Kerr in 1985-7, and she established Eva Jiricna Architects in London in 1987. From the mid-1980s Jiricna became an important figure in interior design. Her best-known projects include several works in 1982-5 for Joseph Ettedgui, including L'Express Caf?, Pour La Maison shop and a private apartment, all in London. These interiors are characterized by an elegant, pared-down minimalism, utilizing polished aluminium, stainless steel, glass and extensive black-painted surfaces, with forms framed within spaces of hard angularity. This approach was somewhat softened in Joe's Caf? (1985-7), London, in which the corners of bars and counters are rounded; their dark surfaces are accented with horizontal bands of stainless steel that recall the Art Deco 'Moderne' style of the 1930s. Jiricna's design for the Fifth Floor (1993) of Bergdorf Goodman Department Store, New York, displays a modernism of bold, almost brash elegance. A showpiece element is a trademark staircase, a non-functional sculptural piece with a network of steel trusses and filigreed glass plates. The interior space is open and flowing, with mobile island structures (stock rooms and sales desks) marking the circulation routes around the floor. The open ambience was completed by opening up previously blocked windows, which were elegantly framed in black lacquered wood.
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