The first lady of glass architecture

Succeeding in a man’s world isn’t easy. Especially when it comes to fields like architecture and glassworking. But exceptions do exist even here. Women who are seeing their day in the sun thanks to their determination and hard work.

Eva Jiřičná, a Czech architect who has lived for over 45 years in London – where she founded her own studio, Eva Jiricna Architects Limited – is among them. She has left footprints in the Czech Republic as well, in the form of a Prague studio named AI – DESIGN. What do these two studios have in common? Glass, steel, and stone; these materials have become her trademarks, as have precisely elaborated designs and the lightness that wafts from her work.

The best signs of Eva Jiřičná’s great success are her designs for major companies worldwide. To mention just a few: Selfridges, Harrods, Boodle & Dunthorne, the Royal Academy of Arts, Karel Schwarzenberg, the British Council, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Prague Castle, and Tomáš Baťa University in Zlín. Her strivings have earned her number of honors, such as the title of Royal Designer for Industry and that of a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for design. She has even been elected as a member of the Royal Academy of the Arts and inducted into the Interior Design Hall of Fame in America.

Though we already know her well, we took a trip out to visit her at the classicist Somerset House in London, adorned with the glass Miles Staircases – the work of none other than Jiřičná – to learn a bit more about her still.

In our interview, she has revealed a little about her beginnings, what led her to study at a high school specialized in Russian studies, and also what differences she sees between Czech and world architecture, why that moment of enlightenment didn’t arrive in Prague as it did in London, and why so few apartments with high-quality architecture are being built today.

You’ll find the answers to these questions and more below in the part of Moser magazine.