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October 12th, 2008
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Bringing a bit of North American architecture across the Atlantic



By Brooke Edge
For The Prague Post
March 19th, 2008 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Markéta Cajthamlová is known for her sleek, modern single-family home designs.
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COURTESY PHOTO
Cajthamlová says her signature style was inspired by 1950s and '60s architecture.
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COURTESY PHOTO
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COURTESY PHOTO
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Markéta Cajthamlová


m.cajthamlova@volny.cz

Markéta Cajthamlová’s office is a far cry from the paper-strewn messes of many of her architectural peers. Rather than overflowing files and half-completed models taking up floor and table space, her place is cozy and warm, with carefully tended greenery lining the windows and tea brewing on the stove. Her “office” is her home, which perhaps explains her penchant for designing sleek, modern homes for others.  
Efficient, modern, open — this is how Cajthamlová describes her design style. Most of her celebrated works are defined by their low-to-the-ground layouts, breath-taking floor-to-ceiling windows and expansive stretches of open space. In a Cajthamlová house, rooms aren’t separated by walls and doors. Rather, they seem to simply flow right into one another.
It is a look she fell in love with while studying 1950s and ’60s American architecture and one Cajthamlová says is popular with many of her Czech clients today.
“Usually they move from the paneláks, [prefabricated concrete high-rises], or the city to owning a single-family home,” she says. “So they want open windows and a connection with nature.”
Another signature of her work that resonates with former city dwellers, she says, is her use of wood, glass and other materials found in nature.
“Natural material is important to me,” she says.
This use of open space, large windows and wooden facades is also a hallmark of Cajthamlová’s designs, and something that sets her apart from the mass-produced, generic-looking housing communities springing up around Prague these days. Cajthamlová finds these cookie-cutter homes shoddy and “a waste of money.”
“Mass production can never be nice,” she says, echoing the generations of Czech craftsmen and women who’ve made this city the architectural gem it is today. Not all fault lies with the developers out to make a buck though, she says. In her opinion, the city ought to create regulations against buildings without care or character.
Cajthamlová can speak with the benefit of generations of experience. Her father and her uncle were architects, which fed her love of design and inspired her to enroll at the Czech Technical University at Prague’s Faculty of Architecture and do her post-graduate work at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. She founded her own company about 20 years ago with business partner and husband Lev Lauermann, the son and great-nephew of architects himself, who has since passed away.
In the 1980s, Cajthamlová and Lauermann were granted permission to work in Canada for two years. When asked how that time in North America influenced her work, Cajthamlová immediately replies, “It had nothing to do with designs. It had only to do with work experience” and seeing firsthand how architecture firms are run on the other side of the world.
She is also quick to acknowledge that her time in Canada had a strong influence on her single-family home designs.
“American homes are more or less different from European houses,” she notes. For instance, the front doors of American homes open right into the main living room. “That’s unthinkable here,” she says.
“Of course, it was transformed into local standards,” when they returned home following the Canadian residency, “but it influenced us,” she explains.
Most of her work comes through word of mouth, Cajthamlová says, and press gained visibility in architectural magazines. Employees seem to seek her out based on reputation as well, as was the case with former co-worker and fellow architect Šárka Holišová-Sochová. While she now runs her own design studio, Holisová-Sochová looks back fondly on the seven years she spent cooperating with Cajthamlová.
“I had seen some works by her which were already published and I liked them very much. So I called her up, we met, and at this meeting, we agreed that I would start working with her,” Holišová-Sochová says.
Today, Cajthamlová employs only two or three assistants, depending on the amount of work that needs to be done. Currently, she has three employees, as the firm is busy with a number of home designs and the interior for a new Faculty of Architecture building at the Czech Technical University in Prague.
“Well, I think she designs such things that are not only functional and suitable for practical purposes, but, at the same time, are very nice to look at — both interior and exterior,” Holišová-Sochová says. “These things work very well and the clients are always very satisfied with everything. … I learned a lot while working with her and spent a very nice seven years there.”
What keeps her going after more than 20 years in the field, Cajthamlová says, is a continuing passion for working with other people committed to advancing the stature of Czech architecture.
“It’s always interesting if you have interesting people around,” she says.
— Naďa Černá contributed to this report.  

Brooke Edge can be reached at specialsection@praguepost.com


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