Vladimir Cacala

Vladimir Čačala (; 1926–2007) was a Czech-born New Zealand architect. He was a proponent of the International Style in Auckland. Čačala built several private residential properties and high-density buildings across Auckland from the 1950s to 1970s, most notably the Blumenthal House.

Early life Vladimir Čačala was born in 1926 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Čačala was born to furniture manufacturer Vladimir T. Čačala, in a region where furniture making had a long tradition. Czechslovakia was a hub of functionalist architecture during the 1920s and 1930s. Within this surge of modernism were ideals such as developing public buildings and housing for public good.

Čačala is best known for his private, residential builds but he was also a key figure in spearheading the development of higher density housing in Auckland, New Zealand. High density housing was unusual to New Zealanders in the 1950s and was generally associated with Europe. But as urban populations continued expanding after World War II and low-to-middle class groups struggled to afford suburban, detached housing, multi-unit housing became a more attractive idea. In 1949, the election of a new National government in New Zealand saw private investors developing flats to create more affordable housing. Vladimir Čačala built his first block of flats in 1954 at 100 St Stephen's Avenue, Parnell.

There were multiple other émigré European architects operating during this period in New Zealand, like Henry Kulka, Tibor Donner and Ernst Plischke, who were big advocates for the international modern. Contemporaries of Čačala, as well as later architects, critiqued him for this adherence to international models.

Blumenthal House (1959) The Blumenthal House was built for Russian-Jewish émigré Raye Blumenthal Freedman and her first husband, Ernest Blumenthal, a Jewish refugee from Czechoslovakia. Key features of the house is its bluestone entrance, cantilevered living room and two-storey high glass. Drawing in local elements, Čačala used bluestone to clad the stairs, an indigenous volcanic stone in Auckland. Čačala's use of red and yellow in sections of the house emulated the coloured abstractions of Piet Mondrian and has given the Blumenthal House the moniker 'Mondrain House'.

Blumenthal House is considered the most internationally known New Zealand modernist building. It featured in the Los Angeles magazine Arts and Architecture, as well as Gio Ponti's Milan magazine Domus. The Blumenthal's remained good friends and became business partners with Čačala, investing in his housing developments.