Ladislav Žák

Ladislav Žák (1900–1973) was engaged in the practical and theoretical examination of the issue of housing and furniture design and later also addressed the in his day urgent task of creating a minimal flat for the poorer social strata. In the 1930s he designed a group of remarkable functionalist family homes at Baba in Prague, where, in different variations, he employed a combination of open social spaces and individual units, which he had already worked out in his building designs for collective housing. He developed a particular interest in linking structures to the outdoor space and the natural environment and the arrangement of the garden. Later, when he left architectural practice, he began to reflect more extensively on questions connected with landscape design and environmental protection. The first monograph on Žák confirms the timelessness of the thoughts of this versatile artist.