Ivan Margolius


Ivan Margolius is an author, architect and propagator of Czech culture and technology.

Life

Margolius was born in Prague, son of JUDr Rudolf Margolius, Deputy Minister for Foreign Trade, and Heda Margolius Kovály, Czech writer and translator, both parents being Holocaust survivors. He attended primary and secondary schools there and started to study architecture at the Czech Technical University in Prague. Margolius left Czechoslovakia in 1966 because of political persecution of his family. He settled in the United Kingdom where he became a naturalized citizen in 1973 and where he completed his architectural studies at the Polytechnic of Central London. He practised architecture at Yorke Rosenberg Mardall, Foster and Partners, Koetter Kim and Associates and Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Margolius co-operated extensively with Jan Kaplický founder of Future Systems. Margolius is an author of numerous articles and books on art, architecture, automobiles, design and history.
In 2016 Margolius suggested to the Prague Council for a street to be named ‘Obětí totality’ which was realised in February 2018 by naming in such a way the alley adjacent to the Memorial to the Victims of Communism at Újezd, Malá Strana.

Published works