In 1897, the young artists of the Viennese secession sent shockwaves through Europe with their radical new approach to art and architecture. While not completely throwing out the neoclassical rulebook, their boldly geometric designs elevated decorative features to a new prominence, and caused the world to examine afresh the relationship between materials, space and aesthetics. In the same year, the Moravian-born architect Jan Kotěra returned from Vienna to Prague, introducing his students and the Czech population at large to his own breakaway ideas. A passionate modernist, Kotěra’s style embodied simplicity and strength; his designs anticipated work which Josef Gočár and Otakar Novotný would bring to fulfilment in the next generation. Considered by many to be the outstanding achievement of Kotěra’s