Dušan Samo Jurkovič

Architect, furniture designer and ethnographer Dušan Jurkovič grew up in a family of Slovak patriots and connoisseurs of folk art. After completing lower grammar school in Sopron, in 1884 he began his studies at the Imperial and Royal Technical School in Vienna, though he apparently did not graduate. He briefly apprenticed with Blažej Felix Bulla and in late 1889 he began working for the Vsetín architect Michal Urbánek, with whom he collaborated on an ethnographic exhibition in Vsetín. The two also worked together on designs for the Czechoslovak Ethnographic Exhibition in Prague in 1895 (a Moravian Vlach farm and the Čičmanský Dvůr). Jurkovič’s success at this exhibition led to one of his most famous projects, set of buildings in Radhošť known as Pustevny (1897–1899). He later worked closely with František Mareš, a leading figure of Brno’s Czech society and director of the local Vesna girls’ school, for which he designed the interior furnishings. He subsequently moved to Brno. In 1901, he designed the first of several buildings for the spa in Luhačovice, the director of which was Mareš’s friend, the physician and balneologist František Veselý. Jurkovič worked at the space until 1914. In 1906, he built his own house in Brno-Žabovřesky, in which he demonstrated the principles of modern living. In 1908–1913, he worked on renovation projects for a chateau in Molitorov near Kouřim and another one in Nové Město nad Metují. Called to serve in the Austrian army during the First World War, Jurkovič worked for the department for the construction of military cemeteries in Kraków. His area of activity included western Galicia, where many of his works are located. After Czechoslovak independence, Jurkovič sought to be directly involved in shaping the new Slovakia, and so he accepted a position as government commissioner for the Office of Heritage Preservation and Nature Conservation in Bratislava (1919–1922). He worked with Jan Palec on plans for the Rondocubist ‘Legiodomy’ in Bratislava (1923–1924), designed homes for civil servants in Martin (1924–1927), and in 1923 built his own villa in Bratislava. With Jindřich Merganc, he designed the Koch Sanatorium in Bratislava (1928–1930), and in 1936–1938 four stations of the Lomnický Štít cableway in the High Tatras were built according to his plans. Towards the end of his life, he experimented with social housing and prefabrication, even published a book on prefabricated family houses (1944–1946).

Dušan Jurkovič 

Architect
Dušan Samo Jurkovič

Date of birth
23. 8. 1868 Turá Lúka u Myjavy

Deceased
21. 12. 1947 Bratislava

Sources
http://www.moravska-galerie.cz/jurkovicova-vila.aspx
https://encyklopedie.brna.cz/home-mmb/?acc=profil_osobnosti&load=155