Oldřich Tyl

12 April 1884, Ejpovice – 4 April 1939, Prague

Oldřich Tyl studied architecture at the Prague Polytechnic (now Czech Technical University in Prague) under the distinguished architect Josef Schulz. After graduation, he worked in Matěj Blecha’s construction company and during the First World War he worked as an engineer near the Italian front. Together with Miloš Tereba and Josef Mikyna, he became the founder of the construction company Tekta and also founded the Architects’ Club, of which he was the president. He founded the professional magazine Stavba. He was also a member and president of the Club for New Prague and also contributed to the capital’s city planning. He also organised a cycle of lectures in which foremost functionalist architects participated, as well as representatives of the German Bauhaus, e.g. Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, Adolf Loos, etc.

Tyl’s early projects were influenced by Cubism and purism, e.g. in houses in Nezamyslova Street in Prague and girls’ YMCA centre in Žižkov (built for the Czech branch of the Young Women’s Christian Association). However, he became famous for his later functionalist designs. One of his most important buildings in Prague, for example, is the Exhibition Palace building, which he designed together with architect Josef Fuchs. It is one of the first larger functionalist buildings in Europe. The Black Rose passage in Na Příkopě street is architecturally very interesting. Other important buildings include a number of hospital buildings, such as the Faculty Hospital in the New Town, hospitals in Kladno, Rakovník, Roudnice nad Labem and Nová Paka. Tyl’s work represents a major contribution to the development of Czech modern architecture and its spatial concept and building constructions, whose technical side he mastered perfectly.