Major new book commemorates “genius designer” Jan Kaplický

The visionary world of architect Jan Kaplický is captured in the hugely impressive new coffee table book Jan Kaplický: Pro budoucnost a pro krásu (For the Future and for Beauty). The hefty monograph is the fruit of 10 years of work by his friend Ivan Margolius, himself also a Prague-born architect who made a life and career in the UK. It traces his beginnings in Czechoslovakia, the story of the highly progressive Future Systems studio and the realisation of some of Kaplický’s space-age designs, alongside interviews with many of his closest associates. I discussed the late architect’s evolution, relationship to his native country and much more with Ivan Margolius.