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Eva Jiricna, Czech Republic/United Kingdom
Eva Jiricna is a Czech-born architect who has been based in London for more than 30 years. Jiricna's experience includes working at the Greater London Council, the Louis de Soissons Partnership and the Richard Rogers Partnership - where she was responsible for the interior design packages for the Lloyds Headquarters building.
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She is also the founder and principal of Eva Jiricna Architects (EJA), an architectural and design practice based in London with offices in Prague. EJA has an international portfolio of residential, commercial and retail customers with a strong focus on interiors.
The practice is in the forefront of innovation in form and technology, with highly crafted and detailed designs employing classic materials - glass, steel and stone - in a thoroughly modern language. Lightness, transparency and truth to materials are the hallmarks of EJA's design approach. Glass is used as a structural and decorative material to both optimise transparency and bring daylight deeply into unpromising retail locations. Stainless steel details, from hinges and fixings to door handles and brackets, are crafted to reflect their structural integrity. Stone floors provide continuity, solidity and interplay with the sparkle of the glass and steel. Jiricna's dramatic staircases, delicately fashioned but sturdily engineered with glass treads and steel cables - central features of both retail and residential schemes - possess sculptural qualities that add to the fluidity of the internal spaces.
EJA’s clients include major corporate and public organisations such as Amec plc, the Jubilee Line Extension, Andersen Consulting, Boodle & Dunthorne jewellers, the Royal Academy of Arts, Selfridges and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Prestigious projects are currently underway in the Czech Republic for both private and corporate clients. Most recently, Eva has designed the Modernism Exhibition for the Victoria & Albert Museum, to much critical acclaim, and the practice is currently engaged in the development of the V&A Master Plan, including the new Jewellery Gallery, scheduled for opening in 2007.
In the UK, EJA has worked on numerous proposals for the London Docklands Development Corporation and was responsible for the elegant transport interchange at Canada Water, one of the prestigious Jubilee Line Extension developments. In 1999, EJA designed the Faith Zone as part of the controversial Millennium Dome exhibition. Other exhibition schemes include a subtle intervention in the Grade 1 listed Sir John Soane's Museum in London and an exhibition design for the Mendel Institute in Brno.
Together with Jan Kaplicky and his practice Future Systems, she designed the Way In store at Harrods, an award winning scheme that influenced a generation of retail interiors.
Over the last decade, Jiricna's contribution to architecture and design has been recognised with personal awards, including being made a Royal Designer for Industry (RDI), a CBE (Commander of the British Empire), election as a Royal Academician by the Royal Academy of Arts, and Hon Fellow A.I.A. (American Institute of Architects). She holds honorary doctorates and professorships in several Universities, participates on international juries (e.g. Darwin Centre at the Natural History Museum, new Arts wing for Goldsmith's College, London), and lectures internationally on her work.
Eva Jiricna graduated from the Royal Institute of British Architects Diploma in Architecture in 1973. She has a Postgraduate Degree Prague Academy of Fine Arts and is architect/engineer from the Technical University of Prague, and in 2001 she became Professor of Architecture & Design at the University of Applied Arts, Prague. Last but not least she was elected President of Architectural Association, London, in 2003.
Eva Jiricna is the representative of the International Union of Architects (UIA) on the jury.
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