Academic architect Bohumír František Antonín Čermák was born in Moravský Krumlov on 8 November 1882. Having graduated from the German Polytechnic School in Brno in 1900, he gained experience in the studio of Adalbert W. Pasdirek-Coren in Vienna. At the same time, he studied at the University of Technology and Academy. After returning to Brno, he worked as an assistant in Josef Nebehostený's studio and set up his own design office in 1910. His first large contracts included the design of the Workers' Accident Insurance building in Brno (1910-12, in cooperation with Robert Farský). He also designed interior and applied arts objects made in his Applied Arts Workshops (Bürgerliche Handwerkkunst), established in Brno in 1910. The administration building of the Brno Zbrojovka arms factory in the district of Zábrdovice built in the then waning monumental style was his largest architectural contract in the mid-1920s.
In the late 1920s his work moved towards modern architecture and he was enthralled by constructivism, which was manifested in his design of the Fair Hall at the Exhibition of Contemporary Culture (1926-28). In the early 1930s he was appointed the director of the ASO Technical and Installation Company and designed most of its department stores throughout Czechoslovakia. He designed his own house in Bílovice nad Svitavou a short time before World War II, and he worked and lived there until his death on 23 September 1961.
