Ladislav Kuba

The life and professional career of the architect Ladislav Kuba are closely connected with Brno. After graduating from the grammar school on Křenová Street, he decided to study at the Faculty of Architecture of Brno University of Technology, which he completed in 1986. From there, he went on to the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, where he graduated from the School of Architecture under Professor Emil Přikryl in 1990. He returned to his alma mater in Brno as a lecturer in 1995 and again between 2000 and 2001. In the 1990s, he worked independently, often in exhibition design, particularly in cooperation with the INVEX computer fair in Brno. In 1996, he began working with Tomáš Pilař, with whom he co-founded Kuba & Pilař Architects (Kuba & Pilař architekti), also based in the South Moravian metropolis, two years later. Their first big achievement was winning the tender for the library of the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University in Brno in 1998, which became their first public contract. Since 2002, when the architects were awarded the Grand Prix of the Architects' Association (Obec architektů) for the implementation of the Faculty of Chemical Technology building and sports facilities at the University of Pardubice, Kuba and Pilař have received many more domestic and international nominations and awards (most recently Architect of the Year 2022), and are considered one of the most outstanding studios of contemporary Czech architecture.

The Kuba & Pilař studio has a wide range of projects in its portfolio, from sacral buildings, monuments, houses, and apartment blocks to department stores and university buildings located all over the country. Its buildings combine the legacy of Czechoslovak pre-war architecture with the impulses of contemporary world design, as represented, for example, in the work of the Swiss Peter Zumthorn. The architects have long followed the path of minimalism, but not at the expense of the artistic aspect of their buildings. In the work of Kuba and Pilař, detail plays an important role, materialising the artistic intention in space, the contextual integration of the entire building into the urban complex, and the penetration of the internal content of the building into its visual form. In terms of materials, the architects mainly work with exposed concrete, which is often supplemented with wood, glass, and metal elements. The results are pure and true, unpretentious, yet monumental and strongly impressive buildings that naturally complement the environment of Czech towns and villages.

AB