In his 95th year, furniture designer Jiří Jiroutek passed away in Prague

photo: Dita Havránková

Prague - furniture designer Jiří Jiroutek passed away in Prague on Wednesday at the age of 95. He was the author of sectoral colorful furniture in the Brussels style on legs, typical pine furniture, and many other furniture sets and pieces. CTK reported his death, citing family sources, through Jana Davidová-Kracíková.

Jiří Jiroutek was born on January 30, 1928, in Pardubice. The website Memory of the Nation states that during the war, he was deployed in a chemical factory in the nearby Semtín, and after injuring his leg in 1945, he joined his uncle's carpentry workshop and later found a similar position in Prague. However, during his military service, the private business he had previously worked for was nationalized and merged into the company Interiér Praha. Jiroutek then took a position as a designer there.

In 1954, he was involved in the creation of one of the first sectoral kitchens in Czechoslovakia, and in the early 1960s, he also designed the U-453 chest of drawers, which quickly became very popular. As the first Czech designer, he applied colors to furniture designs and production, primarily black, white, pink, and gray. The chest of drawers with colorful drawers still attracts both Czech and foreign collectors.

He equated the practicality of furniture with beauty and design, which is why he enjoyed designing cabinets with sliding doors that save space. He designed sectoral furniture to be easily assembled based on the idea of metal pins and riveted holes on the sides of the cabinets. This sectoral furniture was named U-450 and was produced for 20 years (1958 to 1978). In the variants of U-450 furniture, Jiroutek connected the Brussels style with affordability. Technically, he managed to reduce costs so that the furniture could be mass-produced at an acceptable price while still appealing with its design.

In the fall of 1968, Jiroutek met Ingvar Kamprad, who was in Czechoslovakia on a business trip. He offered him a position in the center of his Swedish company IKEA. From 1969 to 1972, Jiroutek designed structural solutions for the assembly of individual furniture pieces for transport.

After returning from Sweden, Jiroutek briefly focused on sales at Interiér Praha, as he was not allowed to return to his position as a designer or technologist. He later moved to the foreign trade department and began organizing exhibitions across Europe. In 1992, he established his own Atelier Jiroutek, specializing in the interiors of banks and insurance companies. Recently, he had been working on designing student furniture, once again in the sector. He collaborated with the company Nanovo.