FUNCTIO NALI SM - Centrála cestovního ruchu – Jižní Morava

Issued by
Centrála cestovního ruchu – Jižní Morava, z. s. p. o.
(South-Moravian Tourist Authority)
Radnická 2, CZ-602 00 Brno
www.ccrjm.cz
A Pavilion, The Exhibition Centre, Brno-Pisárky
Text
Lenka Kudělková
Translation
Ivo Najman
Graphics
Ladislav Němeček
Photography
Zdeněk Borovanský, author‘s archives, Brno City Museum,
Pixmac
Production
Advertum s.r.o.
Propag servis Brno, s.r.o.
Print
Printing House EXPODATA – DIDOT, spol. s r.o.
Year of publishing 2009
Pavilion of The Land
of Moravia,
The Exhibition
Centre, Brno-Pisárky
A Pavilion, The Exhibition Centre, Brno-Pisárky
TRACING
TRACING
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FUNCTIO
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NALI
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1
The Moravian Bank
(at present The Commercial Bank);
Bohuslav Fuchs-Ernst Wiesner;
21 nám. Svobody, Brno; 1928-30
In 1928, the Board of Directors of the Moravian Bank invited tenders for a new building of the Moravian Bank to
be built in the place where the Kounic palace, which had
been knocked down, used to stand. The tender was won by
B.Fuchs and E.Wiesner who then made up the operational
design. The construction started in September 1929 and was
completed a year later.
A 6-storey flat-roofed building incorporating a continuous
loggia on the 5th floor with dwellings, and a recessed 6th
floor also accommodating dwelling units covered, over its
full depth, the plot between nám. Svobody and Veselá street.
The interior layout was concentrated around the central
hall stretching over two storeys and illuminated by a glassconcrete ceiling, and around a large-sized roof light over the
ceiling. Incorporated between the 2nd and 3rd floor was an
installation storey, which made it possible to modify the layout of the office space under the residential storeys.
With its staircase running into Veselá street, this building
with a broad shopping passage significantly affected the
appearance of Brno’s central square. The most prominent
architectural features, which contributed to the new appearance of this square, included the ferroconcrete structure with brickwork backfill allowing to shape both fronts
as a fragile glass (opaxit) curtain whose vertical elements
only articulated the surface of the facade. Traditionally considered to be only the designer of the interior, Erich Wiesner
might also have taken part in designing the facade, which
makes the entire structure look lightweight.
2
The Brouk&Babka
Department Store
(at present Baťa Department Store)
Miloslav Kopřiva; 4 Česká Street, Brno; 1934
Built in the 19th century, this three-storey building replaced
the old Žerotín palace. In 1894, the first Czech store in Brno,
the Barvič Bookshop, was established in this building. Built
on the basis of Miloslav Kopřiva´s competition design, this
oldest building exclusively designed to house shops, was
erected in a record time: in March when the original structure
was still standing, the architect was commissioned to design
the building; in May, V.Nekvasil´s building company was selected to build it, and the digging of foundations started. The
Department Store with its interior equipment should have
been completed by the end of September; however, the term
was shortened, and Brouk&Babka was solemnly opened on
September 22, 1934.
Covered with a flat roof, this 7-storey skeleton row structure
with a recessed upper floor, is a typical example of a more
conservative stream of Brno’s functionalism. The flat access front was designed using the principle of quiet balance
between the horizontals of rectangular windows and the
“steamboat” railing for the upper floor and the perpendicular rows of light facade tiles. The strict orthogonality of the
front is compensated by the eye-see level section formed
by three lengthwise oriented display windows and wide
entrances between them. The rounded corners of the display windows made of glassed-in panels have both an aesthetical and a „psychological“ function because their shape
makes an impression as if they want to draw the passers-by
into the shop.
3
Convalaria, a tenement
house with shops
(at present a polyfunctional shopping and residential building, editor’s office of Mladá Fronta Dnes)
Oskar Poříska; Česká Street 19-21/Veselá Street 26,
Brno; 1937-39
At the end of the 1930s, also O. Poříska made a valuable contribution to Brno’s functionalist architecture with his tenement house with shops, a café and a passageway in a prime
place where Česká street and Veselá street meet. Oskar Poříska
preserved on both the ground floor and the 1st floor - slightly
shifted-forward - the measure of the previous small-sized development; however, from the 2nd floor on, he added to the
building a metropolitan character by enlarged ground plan
and individualized design of the front. While he conceived the
flank front overlooking Česká street and Veselá street as a tenement house facade, he „monumentalized“ the principal side
at the crossroads of both streets by strips of high windows to
form a wall of a commercial building. In spite of this, he preserved, however, the homogeneousness of the carcass of the
building by rounding the corners and by continually panelling the walls with ceramic slabs. Hence, Convalaria became
a worthy counterpart of the nearby Avion Hotel, and together
with it, significantly contributed to giving this busiest part
of the city centre a modern appearance. The fact that Oskar
Poříska located the entrance to the perfumery, after which
the building was named, in the flank front and integrated the
passageway – the smallest in the city – between both streets
testifies to the fact that he was really aware of how busy the
place surrounding the building was.
Convalaria became a sought-for place also thanks to the exclusive Dorotík Café with patisserie on the 1st floor designed
by young architect K. Růžička.
4
The Avion Hotel
Bohuslav Fuchs; 20 Česká Street, Brno; 1926-27
The Avion Hotel was erected where I.Kostelecký´ Inn used
to stand. Then, it was here and on the adjacent plot that
I.Kostelecký´s son had the first post-World-War-I hotel in
Brno built on the basis of B.Fuchs´ design. Thanks to its original design, the Avion Hotel soon became one of the symbols
of Brno´s avant-garde architecture.
In this case, the architect’s assignment was very difficult. He
was to design a hotel with a café on a narrow plot, a task
that required a purposeful arrangement of the space over
the ground plan, with this ground plan being 34 m (depth) by
8,5 m (street front). However, Bohuslav Fuchs, then a young
architect, was able to take advantage of this unfavourable
shape of the building site in favour of the structure in a masterly manner. On the basis of the plans of December 1926,
construction work begun just in 1927 and was completed in
the same year.
It is a 9-storey building with the two lowest storeys reserved
for the café while the remaining 7 storeys are occupied by the
hotel rooms. The entrance hall clearly separates the snackbar, the residential section and the café. The architect designed the interior layout of the entrance hall in an absolutely
unique manner. Owing to a courageous design based on the
fact that no middle walls were used for the construction and
the ceiling was placed on ferrowconcrete pillars in the gable
walls, he managed to suppress the feeling of uneasines, and
test in practice, the idea of a free-flowing space. Here, the
space is not based upon a mechanical arrangement of spatial units, but upon the fact that the neighbouring rooms are
mutually loosely interconnected, fading into each other and
creating a homogenous whole separated partially by furniture or glass. Besides, the halls penetrate one another not only
horizontally, but also perpendicularly. Designed at different
heights, the semi-storeys, which vertically merge into each
other, are connected to form larger units with aesthetically
unusually impressive vistas. In addition, also mirror walls add
to the poetic impression which they make.
The architectural quality of the Avion Hotel was also accentuated by the street front formed by large windows, china
tiles and a white opal glass, which make the street front look
lightweight. The street front also reflects the interior arrangement of the building – a slightly set-forward bay window with
large-sized glass panels is part of the café while smaller strip
windows on the higher floors illuminate the hotel rooms.
In 1948, the Avion Hotel was nationalised and incorporated
in the national enterprise Czechoslovak Hotels. It preserved
its original use down to the 1990s, and it has been used, with
some interruptions, as an accommodation and restaurant
facility even after it had been privatised. However, due to unclear ownership relations, insufficient upkeep and, last but
not least, due to the change in the clientele, the hotel lost
its former fame and glory and became a dull facility, a fate
characteristic of the hotels of the 1920s and 1930s, which
were left standing and whose characterictic esprit irretrievably disappeared along with the political changes in 1948.
5
The Savoy Café
Jindřich Kumpošt; 9 Běhounská Street /1 Jakubské
náměstí, Brno; 1928-29
J.Nekvapil´s Savoy Café came into existence by the adaptation of the lower floors of a corner house, the so called
Thonethof, on a two-wing ground plan with the corners
chamfered. Although there was a possibility of placing the
entrance to the building in the axis of the chamfered corner,
the architect took advantage of the place behind it both on
the ground floor and the 1st floor to create the main space
of the café while shifting the entrance into Běhounská street.
The application of advanced technical novelties made it
possible to design this space, from the point of view of construction, with a lot of courage. With a pair of slim steel pillars situated in the middle of the space to support the higher
storeys, the central hall remained completely free. The central hall was connected with the partially lowered and - in
the centre - widely opened 1st floor by a two-flight, curviform staircase dominating the entire space. The staircase
branched into symmetrically situated wings approaching
Běhounská street and Jakubské square. An ingenious architectural design of the halls at several levels with a number of
picturesque vistas, light effects, decorative formations and
high-grade materials promised the visitors an exceptional
aesthetical experience.
At the beginning of the 1950s, the interiors of the Savoy Café
were substantially degraded by the conversion of the Café
into a textile shop, with little attention paid to architectural
traditions. It was not until 2008 that not only the original
purpose, but also, partially, the original appearance of this
building as a café with a long tradition could be restored.
6
The Zeman Café
Bohuslav Fuchs; Koliště, Brno; 1925
The reconstruction of the Zeman Café in 1925 was a turning
point in the development of Brno’s inter-war architecture.
The Zeman Café closed the period of searching for new concepts, and indicated the direction of the architecture’s further development, which was substantially influenced by Le
Corbusier´s revolutionary conception of architecture.
Built in the park in Koliště street in a place where a tea garden and a café called Schopp Café Pavilion used to stand,
the Zeman Café, a relatively small ferroconcrete structure
with light brick fillings, is one of the first consistently functionalist buildings not only in Brno but in the whole of [what
was formerly] Czechoslovakia. The Café was no more a mere
addition of individual spaces but a homogenous constructional organism whose purposeful ground plan was expressed in the exterior by large sash windows connecting the
interior with a terrace and a park. The harmonious whole of
the building characterised by a minimum of traditional aesthetic means was sensitively embedded in the surrounding
greenery. Both the interior and exterior plasters were uncoloured while the window metal frames in both the interior
and exterior were painted red.
This unique building was rashly knocked down in 1964 to
make way for the Janáček Theatre. The idea of re-building
the Café but in a different place first emerged in 1991. The
replica of the Café was solemnly opened on March 24, 1995,
to mark the 100th anniversary of Bohuslav Fuchs´ birth.
7
Baťa Department Store
(at present Centrum Department Store)
Vladimír Karfík; 24 Kobližná Street, Brno; 1930-31
The first big design by Vladimír Karfík, Baťa´s chief designer,
after his return from practice in the USA, and his only interwar building built in Brno, was preceded by a competition
for Baťa´s palace whose history was rather complicated,
with J.Kumpošt, B.Fuchs, J.Gočár and F.L.Gahura, all of them
renowned architects, appearing as participants in this competition. Karfík´s design, too, was accompanied by some
complications, which resulted in radical modifications of
his original design. At first, the building was planned to be
a 23 (28?)-storey skyscraper. However, due to the unstable
ground over an underground brook and the doubts about
the correctness of static calculations, the number of storeys
was gradually reduced to reach – much to the displeasure of
the investor - only 8 storeys, which the reinforced-concrete
piles could safely support. Despite the fact that the construction was interrupted several times, the department store
was completed in a short period of time: as early as 1931,
the former Baťa´s store could be moved into the new building from the nearby Morava Palace and, a short time after
that, the operation was started.
After World War Two, the „shoe palace“ was replaced by
the Centrum Department Store. To meet the requirements
made by the Department Store, this excellent example of
Brno’s functionalism was, however, insensitively rebuilt in
1966 from J.Brichta´s design. Being one of the symbols of
the modern city in the 1930s, the building lost its characteristic alternation of horizontal strips of clear and colourless
glass, hence also the fragility of the entire carcass of nonsupporting facades.
8
THE ALFA PALACE
Karel Bezrouk, Technology Office of František
Hrdina´s Building Company (in cooperation with
Bohuslav Fuchs at the beginning); 11, 13 Jánská
Street / 10, 8, 6, 4 Poštovská Street, Brno; 1929-37
Bezrouk´s oldest and very „daring“ design of 1929 was inspired by the competition for Baťa skyscraper to be built in
the nearby Kobližná street since Bezrouk´s building should
have had 14 storeys. B. Fuchs was invited to take part in designing a new building, and Fuchs´ design of a monumental
corner building with a cinema in the basement, a shopping
mall and a circular gallery over it, and with upper residential
floors arranged like terraces became the basis for Bezrouk´s
final design, which was implemented, with minor modifications, between 1931-1937.
Attracting attention by its suspended facades made of light
opaxit panels, this 8-storey building, one of the landmarks of
modern Brno, became both a popular shopping centre and
a sought-for centre of entertainment soon after its completion. Besides a big café on the mezzanine, there was also
a cinema and the night club Metro-Hall in the basement
while the upper floors accommodated predominantly smaller flats, fitted, however, with all modern conveniences. The
passage leading out of the main hall connected the building
with náměstí Svobody and Jánská and Poštovská streets.Being in terms of both layout and form an example of mature
design of a polyfunctional metropolitan structure built at
a time when functionalism was in its heyday, the Alfa Palace
is among the most valuable monuments of Brno’s modern
architecture at the present time despite the fact that it was
substantially damaged during World War Two.
9
The First Moravian
Savings Bank
(at present Czech Savings Bank)
Heinrich Blum – Josef Polášek – Otakar Oplatek;
4-10 Jánská Street, Brno; 1937-1939
The core of this 6-storey building includes a large hall and an
oval vestibule with winding staircase leading into the open
hall of the 1st floor, which is illuminated by a ferroconcrete
dome with glass lenses.
The big amount of architectural means chosen by this building’s creators was primarily due to a set of functions assigned to this building. The selection of these means, their
usage and the final shape of the building resulted, however,
also from the endeavour to add, to the basic functionalist
requirement of perfect operation, also other qualities, which
were derived from the functions assigned to this building,
indeed, but were mainly intended to enhance the emotional
and aesthetic values of the building. This was true of both
the space behind the shifted-forward, concavely bent section of the front as well as the vestibule, and particularly the
main hall with large „cabinlike“ windows. It was just the hall
that reflected most distinctly the relations between massing,
space and light. Interestingly enough, the fragile elegance
of their harmony did not remind of megalomania, often so
typical of this type of structures.
It was particularly owing to these qualities that the savings
bank, which captured extraordinary attention as early as
the time of its construction, became one of the most prominent buildings representing late functionalism – and not
only that of Brno.
10
The City
Accommodation Office
(at present the Čedok Travel Agency)
Oskar Poříska; 2 Nádražní Street/Bašty Street, Brno;
1927-28
Built in 1928 as a relatively small inquiry office of unusual
type as part of the preparations for the Contemporary Culture in Czechoslovakia exhibition, this building was characterized by qualities already known from a number of other
buildings constructed in Brno around the mid-1920s. These
qualities included primarily the composition of masses
formed by basic cubic formations erected on a practically arranged ground plan, and simple forms which corresponded
with both the puristic-functionalist „cleanness“ of cubes and
also with the function of the individual spaces and the outward expression of this function. The exterior was dominated
by a large glassferroconcrete wall employed in Brno, in this
case, for the first time. However, the significance of Poříska´s
structure rested primarily in the fact that it was located, very
sensitively, in the historic environment in close proximity of
the main railway station, respecting the old development
near the city wall, and last but not least, allowing continuous
traffic at the semi-circle of the corner section of the building
whose ground plan was still unique at that time.
11
The Railway Station
Post Office
Bohuslav Fuchs; 7 Nádražní Street; 1937-38
The building was built on a very unstable subsoil in a place
where there used to be the former city wall moat, in the
neighbourhood of the main railway station. The ground
floor of the building accommodated the main hall with
a gallery and the packets assorting room while the first floor
was reserved for letter post services. From the street, the
building was adjoined by a ground-floor extension designed
for garages while it was adjoined, from the railway station,
by a glassed-in platform. Glass and metal dominate this prevailingly technical structure since its steel construction can
be seen, and both the partitions and the carcass are largely
glassed-in.
However, the structural design was more important than
the formal arrangement of the elongated front of the post
office. On the one hand, groundwater poached the soil of
the moat, so it was necessary to build a huge ferroconcrete
tank embracing two storeys, on the other hand, the light
steel framework over the tank had to be designed so that the
interior layout of the building could be – in consideration of
the complexity of operation - easily modified, or extended in
the future if necessary. Despite this fact, even the front, for
which a simpler variant had been chosen for economical
reasons (the intended stone was replaced by artificial materials), had its important function: by dividing the interior
into two main storeys, both the different heights and the
functional diversity of the interior were consolidated, and
the busy operation in the interior was overshadowed by an
undisturbed composition rhythm.
12
The Riunione Adriatica
di Sicurtà Insurence
Agency
(at present a polyfunctional office and residential
building)
Karel Kotas; 2 Nádražní Street, Brno; 1936-38
This multipurpose building, which used to house the abovementioned Italian insurance agency, was built between 1937
and 1938 from K. Kotas´ design made in 1936. It is another
architectural „visiting card“ of Brno and, at the same time,
a proof of the viability of the set of functionalist shapes.
Erected on a ground plan shaped as an irregular rectangle,
this 7-storey building has a regular interior layout on all storeys. The core of the ground floor designed for commercial
purposes includes the central vestibule with two side staircases leading into another storey used as office space. The
following storeys are characterized by a symmetric composition of three-room and bachelor flats. The symmetry also
appears on the facade panelled by yellowish natural stones.
The facade’s strong motif is a shallowly protruding mass of
the residential storeys, an element, which gives the structure
a monumental appearance, and, at the same time, translates, through enlarging the area, into the interior to form,
on the 6th floor, the base of the balconies. The recessing upper storey is covered by a flat roof, which slightly overhangs
the facade and is supported by regularly distributed pillars.
However, the fact that this building is among the prominent landmarks of Brno’s architecture is due to some elements that are not just typical of functionalist architecture,
for example the „vertical“ arrangement of the ground and
upper floors, or the symmetry of the main front, with these
elements making it, more or less, one of the examples of the
neo-classicist variant of late functionalism.
13
The Exhibition Centre
Brno-Pisárky; 1926-1928
Brno Exhibition Centre rose on the so called Bauer ramp in
the Pisárky basin, the traditional city recreation area near
the Svratka river. Its construction was motivated by the preparations for the Contemporary Czechoslovak Culture exhibition, a „broadmindedly“conceived event held to mark the
10th anniversary of the foundation of Czechoslovakia. With
the main – now already forgotten - focus of the exhibition,
the construction of the exhibition centre was a big challenge
since what had to be designed was not only the complicated
layout of the entire complex, but also all those permanent
and temporary pavilions and other structures. The history
of this complex urban and architectural assignment goes
back to the year 1924 when tenders were invited for designs
of the permanent Regional Exhibition Centre. At first, it was
the winning design made by J.Kalous from Prague that was
recommended for implementation, but then it was E.Králík
who was put in charge in1926 of making the ultimate urban
design. In his design, E.Králík combined, in a creative manner, his own ideas with those presented by J.Kalous.
The basis of the layout of the exhibition complex is the central
gate, from which two main exhibition axes run, with these
axes embracing the central pavilion - the Commercial and
Industrial Palace (now the A Pavilion) designed by J.Kalous
and J.Valenta. However, this architectural landmark of the
Exhibition Centre also underwent a complicated development. At first, J.Kalous conceived it as a system of semi-circular arches, flat ceiling and a number of galleries reminding of a three-nave space of a church. Making an impression
of being fragmented, the construction of the pavilion was
essentially altered by Brno-based design engineer J.Valenta
who replaced it by more dynamic and space-unifying supporting arches of parabolic shape. The final result of his
alteration, a ferroconcrete and glass structure, was among
the most successful implementations in the field of technical
architecture in the then Czechoslovakia.
The exhibition avenue along Hlinky Street was enclosed by
the Pavilion of Brno Exhibition Fairs by B.Čermák (today the
G Pavilion) with a glassed-in lookout tower. The appearance of the Exhibition Centre was significantly affected also
by B.Fuchs who designed the City of Brno Pavilion, a simple
brickbuilt prism with a winding staircase on the rear facade.
Similar to it was, in both the mass and appearance, the
neighbouring Pavilion of The Land of Moravia by V.Chroust.
The utilitarian layout and the well-balanced artistic concept
were also characteristic of other structures (with many of
them knocked down after the exhibition) designed by architects other than those based in Brno, for example by Praguebased architects P.Janák (the Pavilion of the Arts and Crafts
School in Prague), K.Roškot (The City of Prague Pavilion), or
by Zlín-based architect F.L.Gahura (The District and Town
of Zlín Pavilion). A purposeful conception and, at the same
time, a high aesthetic standard can be exemplified by the
Werkbund der Deutschen Pavilion by V.Beier, or the Czechoslovak Builders Pavilion by J.Rössler from Prague and others.
However, all these structures were surpassed by the cinematheatre and café by E.Králík.
Here, the duality of functions was expressed, on the one
hand, by the articulated area of the front, the compact
ground plan and the dominating curve of the gallery of
the cinema-theatre hall, on the other hand by a light construction of the Café with glassed-in front, open staircase as
well as the gallery and its constructivist details (such as the
„steamboat“ guardrail).
A unique category of „exhibits“ included experimental residential buildings demonstrating contemporary ideas of
modern housing. A one-storey building with roof terrace designed by O.Starý was an attempt to design an economical,
mass-produced type of family house. The tenement house of
the Union of Czechoslovak Work by J.Havlíček represented
a new conception of this type of structure paying even more
attention to wider urban aspects. This three-storey structure
with a staircase buttress, corner balconies and dwelling terrace on a flat roof, in the interior of which the Union installed
furnishings designed by renowned architects, represented
two central sections of the block of a large housing estate
formed by strip residential buildings.
Characterized by creative activity not surpassed until now,
the construction of the Exhibition Centre became not only
a unique cultural event, but, at the same time, also the climax of the developments in architecture and urban planning of that era as well as a victorious manifestation of
functionalism as the principal and stimulating stream of
Czechoslovak architecture.
14
The „New House“
Housing Estate
Bohuslav Fuchs, Josef Štěpánek, Jaroslav Grunt, Jiří
Kroha, Hugo Foltýn, Miroslav Putna, Jan Víšek, Jaroslav Syřiště, Ernst Wiesner; 2-10 Petřvaldská Street,
144-148 Šmejkalova Street, 2-12 Drnovická Street,
109-111 Bráfova Street, Brno; 1927-28
The experimental Modern Housing Exhibition – New House
was aimed at presenting to the public the results of attempts
to design a modern small-size family house using contemporary constructional novelties. This experiment, in which
nine architects took part, was preceded by the parcelling of
the land below Wilson forest, which was carried out by two
of the participating architects – J.Grunt and B.Fuchs. They
grouped the buildings to form a centripetal, lengthwise symmetrical formation originally divided only by a pedestrian
mall. The housing estate comprised 16 houses, all of them
designed in a modern style. There were cellars and technical installations on the ground floor while the first floor was
designed as the dwelling space with central living room and
dining recess next to a small, purposeful kitchen. The second
floor accommodated bedrooms with a bathroom, often
connected with a sun terrace on the flat roof.
The exhibition met its purpose only partially since only some of
the houses, for example those designed by J.Víšek, B.Fuchs and
J.Grunt, tackled the relevant issues of small-size dwelling units.
Despite this fact, the housing estate soon became known not
only as a manifesto of living in a house of one’s own, but also
as a textbook example of functionalist architecture.
15
The Hus Congregation
of Czechoslovakian
Church Complex
Jan Víšek; 1 Botanická Street, Brno; 1926-29
One of the first post-war sacral structures in Brno was the
Hus Congregation church in Botanická street built between
1927 and 1929 on the grounds of the results of a competition announced by the Czechoslovakian Church in 1926,
which was won by J.Víšek.
It is a free-standing building with flat roof and with the individual spatial elements representing various functions arranged one after the other on the longitudinal axis parallel
to the street. The basic layout is derived from the scheme of
a Christian church with a longitudinal nave and a slim prism
tower on the side, symbolically topped, in harmony with
what the Church representatives had wished, with a Hussite
sun. The ground floor accommodates a multipurpose assembly hall while the 1st floor houses a chapel, which can be
entered from the terrace accessible from the external staircase. The ground-floor assembly hall is accessible straight
from the street.
A modest building of the Huss Church, well-balanced in
terms of masses, takes a prominent place in the context of
Jan Víšek´s creation, among other things also by a remarkably „civic“ conception of this sacral structure. However, it
primarily refers, with its composition of clearly bounded
white cubes, to the puristic stream of architecture, which
was very strong in Brno even at a time when its original „purification“ role had already gone to an end, and which found
its genuine representative just in J.Víšek as is convincingly
documented also by his later designs.
16
Masaryk Dormitory
(at present The House of Youth)
Bohuslav Fuchs; 21 Cihlářská Street, Brno; 1929-30
At first, only a secondary school canteen and a clinic were
to have been built on the plot between Cihlářská, Botanická and Burešova streets. In 1926, the assignment was extended to also include a boarding house and a social centre for students not residing in Brno. On the grounds of this
programme, tenders were invited for this design, and it was
B.Fuchs who submitted the winning one. Later, he was put in
charge of making the implementation design.
The complex consists of two buildings interconnected by
a staircase. The lower building was designed for a student’s
canteen with clubrooms on the mezzanine and a lecture hall
on the first floor. The other one, a 4-storey building, accommodated the bedrooms, studies and a doctor’s office. The
narrow fronts of the boarding house are articulated by continuous balconies, the wide ones by horizontal windows. The
wing accommodating the student’s canteen dynamizes the
contrast between the glassed-in area of strip windows and
the full white wall.
The dual purpose of this complex, that is the social and residential sections, was expressed here by an impressive composition of prism structures forming an articulated whole originally accentuated also by a variety of colours. Accentuated by
balconies, a glassed-in wall and a cantilevered little roof over
the entrance, the differentiation of masses also made a contribution to integrating the building into the neighbouring
urban development. Hence, the dormitory suitably enclosed
the block of residential buildings in Cihlářská and Botanická
streets creating a small space in front of the General Pension
Institute, the landmark of this area.
17
The General Pension
Institute
(at present the Supreme Court of the Czech Republic)
Emil Králík; 20 Burešova Street, Brno; 1930-1932
In July 1930, tenders were invited for the design of a pension
institute to be built on the construction site opposite Masaryk Dormitory, which was just under completion at that
time.
In November 1930, E.Králík was put in charge of making
the ultimate design. The construction commenced in June
1931, and as early as September 20, 1932, both the Czech
and German offices started operation. After World War Two,
the building housed several institutions. From the 1960s,
the building was occupied by the Secretariat of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. In 1986, an insensitive extension and a graded hall in the courtyard were built from
M.Steinhauser´s design to meet the needs of the Communist
Party Secretariat. At the beginning of the 1990s, the Rector’s Office and the Computer Technology Institute of Masaryk University settled down in this building. In September
1993, the building was handed over to the Supreme Court
of the Czech Republic, which has been using it down to the
present.
A 6-storey ferroconcrete framework on a U-shaped ground
plan with relatively short side wings dominates a small,
slightly sloping-down area. The mass of the main wing rests
on a base formed by the ground floor and a slightly recessed
mezzanine. Despite the monotonously articulated front, the
building makes a well-balanced impression, which is accentuated also by a noble glassed-in entrance and the vestibule faced with marble. Owing to a well-arranged layout,
sufficient light and air, and primarily thanks to its „humane“
measure, the building is – by right - ranked among the most
valuable monuments of modern architecture in Brno.
18
Tenement Houses
Václav Dvořák – Jaroslav Brázda; 34-50 Kotlářská
Street, Brno; 1938-39
It was already its old development that gave Kotlářská Street
a metropolitan appearance. However, the decisive impulse
in this process came from the gradual redevelopment of
Kotlářská street, for example by the structures erected at the
corner of Botanická street, which were designed by A.Kuba
and V.Dvořák in 1930 and 1931, and first all by the tenement
houses Nr.34-50 built from V.Dvořák´s and J.Brázda´s design in the late 1930s.
The architectural standard of these nine 5-storey houses
with attic built to form a row was remarkably high in terms
of the quality of housing achieved by a well-thought ground
plan of the flats, their socially differentiated categorisation
and the level of amenities (balcony, indoor garden, garage,
lift, outdoor design around the house), but also in terms of
their aesthetic quality since much attention was paid to
aesthetic aspects of their appearance. In this case, these attempts manifested themselves by the black and light facing
of the front, bay windows, continuous windows, niches with
balconies and, last but not least, by bevelled wall sections repeating with each house, with these bevelled sections adding plasticity and dynamism to the static orthogonality of
the main fronts.
In the final stage of this scheme, this complex of tenement
houses should have found its dominant in a high-rise building to be built at the corner of Lidická and Kotlářská streets.
However, this building was never built.
19
Regional Headquarters
and the Headquarters
rd
of
the
3
Force in Brno
(at present University of Defence)
Bohuslav Fuchs; 65 Kounicova Street, Brno; 1936
It was Bohuslav Fuchs´ second attempt to make a design
for the area at the corner of Kounicova and Zahradníkova
streets since he dealt with building up this area, together
with J.Kumpošt, as early as 1931 when he set up the Academic Square Regulation Study. His plans to build a university complex with university library were never materialized,
but a military headquarters began to be built from B. Fuchs´
competition design on the construction site instead. The
military headquarters building is remarkable by its original
segment-based bent entrance section, which should have
found its counterpart in the symmetrically formed building
of the Regional Court also designed by B.Fuchs. The bending of this elongated, non-articulated block was the result
of how B.Fuchs conceived this assignment from the point of
view of urban design. The curves used for the buildings of
both the Military Headquarters and the planned Regional
Court should have optically corrected the turn of Kounicova
street in front of the entrance to the space between these
two buildings, and they shoud have evoked, still along the
line of urban-design principles of functionalism, the illusion
of continuation of their straight run. On the one hand, the
structure became a „mere“ tool of urban considerations, on
the other hand, the „dynamization“ of its ground plan by the
segment-based bending overshadowed the monotonousness of the elongated main front. With its grandiose measure as well as its urban expression, this building became the
landmark of one of Brno’s main streets.
20
A Complex of Tenement
Houses
Jindřich Kumpošt; 26-30 Pod kaštany Street , 28a,
28b, 28c, 34a, 34b and 34c Tábor Street, 93-97 Kounicova Street, Brno; 1931
Around 1930, Jindřich Kumpošt´s multivariant design of
tenement triple-houses for Stavog and Blahobyt cooperatives was one of the most advanced designs of a tenement
house with medium-sized and small flats. There were three
aspects, which made this design so remarkable. Firstly, it
was the urban integration of this complex since it was the
first time that the designer employed the system of row-type
development; secondly, the extremely economical design of
dwellings putting emphasis on social aspects; thirdly, it was
an attempt to create a small centre with services and a nursery school located in green spaces with playgrounds.
Four blocks with three sections of residential buildings with
each of them having its own entrance form a group of 4-storey small-dwelling residential buildings, originally covered
with flat roofs. Altogether, this housing complex comprises
220 dwellings, all of them having one to two and a half
rooms. From the formal point of view, the buildings are
characterized by one of the basic elements of functionalism,
namely the strip window and the drawn-in strip balcony, in
this case connected to create a long, joint strip; a single, but
a very strong motif of shape dominating the smooth, light
facade.
In 1940, two middle blocks built from the design made by
the employees of the City Building Authority in Brno were
added to this typical functionalist row development.
21
The Era Café
Josef Kranz; 30 Zemědělská Street, Brno; 1927-29
Designed as a free-standing residential building with a café
for J. Špunar, this structure was built between 1927 and 1929
on the basis of J.Kranz´ design. In terms of architecture, it
ranks among the most valuable structures of the early period of Brno’s functionalism.
Josef Kranz, then a young architect, was assigned a difficult
task of designing a café and the owner’s flat under one roof
so that both units were separated. However, he did his job
very well by designing a structure horizontally divided into
two units with different functions – a café on the ground
and first floors while the second floor accommodated the
flat. The interior of the café was designed as a homogenous space articulated only by the supporting structure
and the suspended arm of the curviform staircase whose
artistic effect was additionally accentuated also by strong
plasticity and colourfulness. Using large-size windows and
a glassbrick wall to allow light into the building transversely
from the street, or from the yard respectively, the architect
achieved a magic light atmosphere and a feeling of intimacy. By interconnecting and articulating the individual
sections as well as by frequently using a system of writing on
some supporting elements and the staircase, he managed
to give the Café a well-balanced „human measure“, which
became its characteristic feature. A graphically pure composition of the street front where the plastic elements were
reduced so that the front almost made a 2D-impression as
if it was a poster, was inspired by the facade of the De Unie
Café designed by J.J.P. Oud a few years earlier.
22
Villa for Grete and
Fritz Tugendhat
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe; 45 Černopolní Street,
Brno; 1928-1930
Built in Brno for Mr and Mrs Tugendhat on the basis of Mies
van der Rohe´s design at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s,
this villa is considered, owing to both the radicalism of its
principal idea and the timeless formal and technical design,
to be Mies van der Rohe´s most prominent pre-war design.
The basic layout, the appearance of the front as well as
the horizontality of the villa are based upon a sloping plot,
which originally belonged to a house situated in Drobného
street and owned by Grete’s parents. The entrance floor accommodated a hall and bedrooms while the independent
wing housed garages and the personnel’s dwelling. The second floor accommodated the main dwelling space - subdivided by an onyx wall, a Macassar ebony wall and low furniture – with indoor garden and kitchen with scullery. The
lowest floor housed utility rooms.
The design made by Mies van der Rohe, a foreign designer,
was not quite alien to the programme of Brno’s architecture.
With this villa, an idea, which had already been B.Fuchs´
principal idea in designing the Zeman Café, the Café of the
Avion Hotel or his own house was realized at a larger scale.
All these designs were based upon the joint idea of replacing traditional, separated rooms by a „floating“ space connected with what it was surrounded by. However, this trend
was fully brought to bear for the Tugendhat Villa, just as
was the radical relation of the interior to the environs. While
there is a solid wall protecting the entrance floor from the
street, the dwelling storey opens up to the garden through
glass walls. This design is also accentuated by the possibility of lowering the big windows into the basement and by
the decent colours of the interior, which stress the colourfulness of the surrounding landscape. Mies van der Rohe´s
furniture, also perfect in shapes, is still in production abroad.
Implemented by landscape architect G.Roderová from Brno,
also the garden design is Mies van der Rohe´s work. Both the
garden and the house were designed to meet the investors´
wishes. Also technical novelties, such as air conditioning or
electronic photocell-operated safeguarding system contributed to making the structure unique.
Being of Jewish origin, the Tugendhat family occupied the
villa only until their emigration in 1938. After that, the villa
was used as offices by a Germany-based company manufacturing aircraft engines. In 1945, it was occupied by the Soviet Army that did great damage particularly to the interior.
However, the constructional structure of the house was preserved even during a period when it was used as a school of
calisthenics and a physiotherapeutic centre for children as
part of the children´s hospital. However, there were attempts
by the public from the 1960s aimed at renewing the building, which were partially successful only 20 years later when
the National Committee of the City of Brno moved some of
its offices into the reconstructed villa. Immediately after November 1989, requirements were made to find a more decent way of using this structure, and in 1994, it was handed
over to the Museum of the City of Brno, which made it accessible to the public. In 1995, the villa was declared a national
cultural monument and put on the UNESCO World Heritage
List in 2001.
23
Masaryk Czech Boys´and
Girls´ Elementary School
(at present Basic School)
Mojmír Kyselka Sen.; 29 Zemědělská Street, Brno;
1930-1931
One of the most valuable functionalist structures in Brno. In
terms of its mass, it is a richly articulated symmetric building
with a very impressive composition of areas, and it is also
remarkable by its layout design based on the principle of
a hall school.
The symmetry of its interior layout with a hall, dining room
and reading room in the middle, a layout corresponding
with the type of co-educational school, manifested itself fully also in the configuration of the main front of the building
and in the axial entrance buttress with terrace. At the same
time, this front became the main carrier of artistic values of
the structure. A very sensitively balanced relation between
the dimensions of the horizontally oriented block, the shape
of the windows and their relation to the surrounding area
as well as the overall elegance of the building achieved using only a minimum of means suggest a strong influence of
functionalist architecture as conceived by Le Corbusier.
The school, which also included a nursery school, was situated in a large garden with two large playgrounds and an outdoor swimming pool. It also had an indoor swimming pool
and even a paediatric advisory room. Due to its demanding
programme and high artistic level, Kyselka´s school aroused
attention as early as its rise, not only among Czechoslovak
experts, but also abroad.
24
The City Baths
Bohuslav Fuchs; 25 Zábrdovická Street, Brno
1929-31
In 1929, tenders were invited for the design of the city baths,
with the first prize going to Bohuslav Fuchs. The operational
design was made by Bohuslav Fuchs and the personnel of
the City Water Works. The construction began in May 1931
and was completed in June 1932.
Situated in an industrial suburb characterized by unfavourable conditions in terms of urban design, the baths were conceived as two independent winter and summer operations.
The ferroconcrete framework used for the prism-shaped
two-storey building of the winter baths, which accommodated a lot of services and functions, enabled to create
a purposeful layout of this building, and it also appeared in
the exterior as an impressive composition of light construction frames and light face-fair brickwork fillings. Accommodating cloakrooms, the one-storey building with exterior
staircases, continuous galleries and a sun terrace gave the
summer baths, which included swimming pools, grass areas
and playgrounds, an impressive architectural frame.
However, the timeless value of the City Baths in Brno-Zábrdovice rests not only with the adoption of sober functionalist elements for their architectural design and with the
flawless design of their operations, but also - particularly with creating the feeling of harmony, freedom, health and
joy. For this reason alone, contemporary literature specializing in architecture justly classified this complex as one of
the most advanced structures of Czechoslovak architectural
avant-garde.
25
Otto Eisler´s Own House
(„The House for Two Bachelors“)
Otto Eisler; 10 Neumannova Street, Brno; 1930-31
The original name of the house, under which it is often mentioned in specialized literature, was chosen by the designer
himself since he occupied the house with his – also single
– brother. Corresponding with the lifestyle of the architect,
a passionate sportsman, amateur musician, botanist and
zoologist, the interior layout of the house is just as unique
as its name.
The house is situated in the middle of an old sloping orchard,
the original appearance of which Otto Eisler preserved to
the greatest possible extent. The house consists of the basement, which accommodates utility rooms, and the ground
floor resting upon the basement and dominated by a large
dwelling space opened, through a wide glass door, onto the
garden. On the 1st floor, there are two bedrooms and a joint
room between them, with this room being interconnected
with the balcony running over the full width of the southern
and eastern fronts. The roof floor contains a winter garden
with aviary, a shower and an open gymnastic terrace.
The House for Two Bachelors testifies to Otto Eisler´s gradual
transition from rational purism to functionalism, his affinity with the works created by his teachers at the German
Technical University of Brno, and it also testifies to the lessons that he had taken from A.Loos´ and E.Wiesner´s villas,
the exclusivity of which he transformed to meet the needs of
higher social strata.
26
The Vesna School of
Home Economics
(at present School of Nursing and Higher-Level
Medical School)
Bohuslav Fuchs – Josef Polášek; 16-18 Lipová Street,
Brno; 1929-30
Eliška Machová Dormitory
(at present Home of Young People)
Bohuslav Fuchs; 16-18 Lipová Street, Brno; 1929-30
A two-storey free-standing building with roof terrace and
set-forward gymnasium was designed without the traditional gangway whose function was taken over by a continuous balcony. The central bearing wall was replaced by
pillars and folding walls, which made it possible to extend
the classrooms to include the adjacent working rooms
separated by built-in furniture. The school was adjoined by
a four-storey dormitory as its constructional section, originally planned as a finishing school and a boarding house for
working women.
With their programme and its implementation, both structures brought many a novelty with them. In designing the
layout of the school, attention was paid to the most advanced teaching methods, and a new structural system was
employed – probably for the first time in Czechoslovakia.
This system rested with transferring the bearing function
from the longitudinal walls to the walls between the rooms
and with the transversal arrangement of ceilings. The fronts
were „immaterialized“ to such an extent that only a framing
system with big windows remained left. As was apparent
on the front of the dormitory, the new system made it also
possible to push the balconies back like boxes. The balconies
opened the building to the surrounding space, and allowed
light and air to get in, too. The structural system also reduced
the period of construction – for the shell of the storey with
rooms to only 5 to 6 days.
27
Jiří Kroha´s Own House
Jiří Kroha; 45 Sedlákova Street, Brno; 1928-29
A corner two-storey building on a rectangular ground
plan is situated at the end of Sedlákova street at the foot
of a steep slope whose part is arranged as an ornamental
garden. Through a small garden in Sedlákova street, you get
to a small yard where the main entrance of the house leads.
The ground floor houses utilities, the 1st floor houses the
space designed for the family’s social life: a hall, living room
with dining recess, a small kitchen and utility room. Accommodating the bedrooms, the top floor has a recreation function, too, since there is a balcony with adjacent sun terrace.
Forming a system of interlocked spaces with throughviews
into both the interior and the garden, the conception of the
dwelling floor is original, just as the design of the facades.
While the street front, vitalized only by a buttress of a different colour, makes a compact impression, the garden facade dominated by a large strip window surprises with its
segmentation. Also the colour of the facade – a dynamic
composition of olive green, white, red and black – adds to
the strong plastic impression of the structure.
The house represents one of the examples of Kroha closely
approaching the boundaries of functionalism, which he,
however, never crossed. In his creation, he always tried to
achieve a symbiosis of technical and artistic aspects, a principle, which was in stark contrast with the basic principles of
functionalism, particularly in its heyday.
28
Bohuslav Fuchs´ Own
House
Bohuslav Fuchs; 2 Hvězdárenská Street, Brno
1927-28
A two-storey, free-standing house accommodates, in the
basement, utility rooms and a garage while a dwelling hall
with circular gallery – a library – forms the ground and 1st
floors. The hall includes a winter garden and a dining room
with adjacent purposeful kitchen. Besides the library, the 1st
floor also accommodated Fuchs´ design office and study
while the upper floor accommodated the bedrooms, guest
rooms, cloakroom and bathroom. The flat roof was also
used as a relaxation terrace. The roof terrace was accessible
from the ground floor by a winding staircase. The street facade is plain, the garden front is dominated by the window
of the hall.
Again, the architect did not conceive the interior of his own
house as a traditional composition of strictly designated
rooms, but as a homogenous space horizontally integrated
by a variable ground plan, a sliding section of „the wall“ and
the curtains in the living hall while it was vertically integrated
by the throughviews into the storey. Hence, the house should
not have been only a well-working „machine for housing“
any more, but an inspiring environment meeting also the
spiritual needs of its users. Realising his intention, which was
influenced by Le Corbusier´s concepts, Bohuslav Fuchs went
beyond the line of the early, rational stage of functionalism
to achieve an aesthetic-emotional conception, and, to some
extent, he also anticipated Mies van der Rohe´s radical interpretation of inner space.
The Savings Bank
of the Town of Tišnov
(at present the Commercial Bank)
Bohuslav Fuchs – Jindřich Kumpošt; 4 Komenského
nám., Tišnov; 1931-1933
The building of the savings bank in Tišnov was erected in
the early 1930s. It is situated at a busy street corner formed
by two steeply rising streets leading to the central square in
a place where the hotel called At the Golden Stag used to
stand.
Designed by renowned Brno-based architects, this building
is a mature example of functionalism. The building, a twowing four-storey multipurpose structure, is based upon subtle pillars of a steel supporting structure, externally visible
in some parts of the building. The lower floors of the main
wing, which followed older row houses, accommodated
spaces designed for the public, the rear wing was used as the
savings bank’s office space and the upper floors housed doctors´ offices and dwellings. The building was characterized
by a striking „immaterialization“ of the prism-shaped main
wing, an element, which radically changed the appearance
of the surrounding historical development. This change was
brought about by a wide, sunk entrance, glassed-in oriel of
the hall, which supported the balcony, furthermore by strip
windows with interpillars, through which the purposeful interior layout translated into the exterior, large areas of glass
bricks illuminating the staircase, and finally by an open terrace on the 2nd floor at the bevelled corner.
The building has preserved its initial use as a financial institution down to the present, even if the new owner - the Commercial Bank – altered particularly the original design of the
interior to meet the current requirements.
The Moravia Bank
(at present the Czech Savings Bank)
Josef Polášek; 14 Masarykovo nám., Boskovice;
1936-37
With its ground plan shaped as a trapezoid expanding into
a yard where a crosswise oriented single-storey building
with a service dwelling stands, the building of the Moravia
Bank was built in a place where a burgher house built at the
end of the 18th century used to stand. It is a three-storey attached building with the public space and the director’s office situated on the ground floor, and dwellings on the two
upper floors. Two double-casement windows leading to the
oblong balcony and a four-casement window overlook the
square. A flat roof not higher than the surrounding development covers the building. Expressed on the storeys through
balconies and rows of windows, a strong horizontal trend
also appears on the mezzanine and at the eye-see level with
set-inside entrances to the bank and on the staircase leading
to the dwellings, and also through a pair of shop windows.
The original ceiling – a raster of plates made of milk glass
and metal bars -, the entrance door and the travertine facing
of both the walls and the supporting column testify to a very
high quality of craftsmanship, which can also be found on
the ground floor in the clear-glass shop windows embedded
in a metal frame, and in the transparent areas belonging to
the mezzanine. A well-thought austerity characterizes also
the interior of the bank with „gadgets“ preserved down to
the present, such as round doormats and lighting fixtures of
a similar shape over them.
Polášek´s favourite vertical of the staircase window composed of glass blocks is the dominating artistic element of
the yard front.
THE District Health
Insurance Agency
(at present Basic School of Art)
Jindřich Kumpošt; 7 nám. 9.května, Boskovice;
1928-32
A longer two-storey wing of a building on an L-shaped
ground plan is horizontally divided into the plinth (ground
floor) faced with natural stone, and a storey with a row of
regularly distributed windows with interpillars, which can
also be found on the ground floor. Perpendicular to this wing
is a short three-storey wing with saddle roof, on the ground
floor also faced with stone. The plastic hood moulding made
of a material of contrast colour, which was adopted to artistically accentuate the windows on the 2nd floor of this building suggests that they were windows of an important room,
for example the assembly room. The building is dominated
by an overdimensioned „tower“ topped by triangular points.
The free part of the ground floor with the main entrance is
covered by the pedestal of the corner balcony supported by
a stone pillar. A narrow vertical staircase window is a prominent artistic element of the side facade of the „tower“.
It is difficult to find an explanation for the original appearance of the „tower“ (it might have been inspired by German
expressionism at the beginning of the 1920s), especially if
it makes an „extraneous“ impression in the environment
of a small town, disturbing the artistic effect of this otherwise sober structure. However, the interiors of the building
are also remarkable since they contain a number of wellpreserved authentic elements whose most prominent item
is a column with figural reliefs made by Brno-based sculptor
F.Fabiánek. The column is situated in the vestibule.
Eduard Sedlmajer´s
Shopping and
Residential Building
(at present Mountfield outlet)
Václav Hilský – Rudolf Jasenský;
25 Sušilovo nám., Rousínov; 1939
In Rousínov, the tradition of furniture making goes back to
the mid-19th century, and it is connected with the Sedlmajer family who ran their small business on what is today 25
Sušilovo náměstí as early as that time. In 1939, a new building comprising, under one roof, a spacious sample room
with an outlet on the ground floor, a workshop in the yard
and a 4-room flat on the 1st floor was erected in the place
where the old building used to stand. The 1st floor was connected with the ground floor by a wooden staircase. Two
of three rooms overlooking the square were illuminated by
a strip window, the third (and the largest one) had a shallow
loggia with a winter garden. Faced with brown and white
ceramic tiles, the front, compact in mass, strictly geometrical and almost graphically pure, showed a special rhythm of
glass areas of the shopping windows and the windows and
the strips of solid walls, which alternated horizontally. The
company sign on the attic gave the building an impressive
artistic accent.
Sensitively embedded in the environment of a small town
and following the old adjacent Sokol Hall in a cultivated
manner, this small-scale row house is a very good example
of how multipurpose buildings were conceived at a time
when functionalism was already fading away. However, the
designers of this building were not able to go, in this very late
period, beyond the consistently right-angled order of heyday
functionalism, which started to be commonly replaced by its
softer, „emotional“ variant as early as that time.
The Savings Bank
of the Town of Kyjov
(at present the Czech Savings Bank)
Miloslav Kopřiva; 2 Masarykovo nám., Kyjov
1925-26
This building is an example of early, very reserved functionalism, which was not typical of either Kopřiva´s creation or
a small town.
The modest building of the savings bank was built in a prime
place at the head of the central square next to the renaissance town hall. A three-storey building with four window
axes was adapted to the town hall in height, and its relationship to the town hall is also expressed by a storey oriel,
a modern parallel to the town hall tower, which is also set
forward, but is higher. While the two upper storeys of the
savings bank have a row of small rectangular windows in
plastic plat-bands, the ground floor, with three large glass
areas reminding shop windows rather than normal windows, were designed in a modern style. The new conception
of the open eye-see level stands off especially in contrast
with the relatively small entrance embedded in a traditional
reveal graded in several places.
The moderateness of the building in its expression is, with no
doubt, largely intentional. At that time, the building of the
District Health Insurance Agency was built in Uherský Ostroh
from Kopřiva´s design. Composed of several mutually interlocking cubic bodies, this building is a surprisingly dynamic
structure. In Kyjov, however, the architect had to embed his
structure in the surrounding historic development, which he
tried to show respect for just by the moderate conception of
the building of the savings bank.
The Family House for
Stella and Arnošt Hayek
Bohumil Tureček; 21 Seifertovo nám., Kyjov
1931-1932
The house is situated in the part of the town called Na
Újezdě, in the garden quarter where a number of various
residential buildings – family houses, small tenement villas
or also small tenement houses – were built for private individuals during WW1 and WW2.
A free-standing structure is erected on an irregular ground
plan defined by consistently rectangular lines. A well-arranged layout develops from inside to outside, and reflects
also in the arrangement of windows and doors. With a fireplace as its dominating element, the central hall surrounded by the main dwelling spaces represents the core of the
ground floor. There is a staircase leading from the hall to the
incomplete roof semi-floor where the guest room and, later,
the children’s room and also the laundry and dry room were
situated. The remaining part of this floor accommodated
a spacious relaxation terrace railed by pipe breastwork with
light wire mesh fillings.
The main entrance, whose dominant part is the glass wall
of the veranda slightly sunk into the house, is situated in the
southern front. Owing to the strip window of the forwardrunning dining room, the western wall also lost its material
substance to a great extent.
The clear composition of spectacularly graduating masses
disappeared during insensitive post-war adaptations when
the former property of the Jewish family was transferred into
the ownership of the Czechoslovak state.
The Family House
for Marie and Metoděj
Souček
Josef Polášek; 2 U Parku, Kyjov; 1929-1930
This free-standing house was built on a well-arranged Lshaped ground plan with the main dwelling spaces in the
long wing and an art gallery in the short wing. Designed for
displaying the works of Souček´s own collection, the gallery
is illuminated by indirect, scattered light falling into the interior through a glassed-in roof light shaped to form an elongated pyramid.
This ground floor house is partially embedded in the ground
due to the sloping terrain. The basement accommodates
utility rooms and a garage whose above-ground section is
situated obliquely toward the front, an arrangement that
evokes the shape of a keel, one of the architect’s favourite
nautical motives. At the same time, the mass of the garage
serves as the socle for the terrace of the living room characterized by a long strip window. With the exception of the gallery, the structure is covered by flat roof used as a relaxation
terrace protected by a subtle „steamboat“ railing.
Polášek´s first work done for a private builder became the
oldest item in a group of at least 12 family houses built in
Kyjov from Polášek´s designs. In this country, such a design
is exceptional because of its less frequently used ground
floor layout referring to the lessons from Dutch architecture,
concretely to architect H.Wegerif´s own villa built near the
Hague, which Polášek got familiar with during his study tour
of Holland in 1928.
The District Authority
(at present The Labour Exchange Office)
Jan Víšek; 25 Národní Street, Hodonín; 1936-39
Situated where Národní and Velkomoravská streets meet,
the building of the District Authority, the construction of
which had been postponed several times, became the last
big structure erected in Hodonín between WW1 and WW2 in
the second half of the 1930s.
The design was made in 1936 by Jan Víšek who returned,
with his clear, rationally justified conception of this building,
to the almost puristic stage of his creation, a stage which
was very close to him all his life. Based upon strict and precise, almost „mathematical“ proportions and relationships,
this austere structure completely dominated, with its monumental measure, a prime place in the centre of the town.
After the completion of this building, the penetration by the
regional „uniqueness“ of local modern architecture came to
a full stop. However, this „full stop“ was very hard. With its
overdimensioned masses, this four-storey building with two
wings on an L-shaped ground plan with long street facades,
articulated only by the monotonous rhythm of window apertures, completely absorbed the surrounding small development, with the large, monotonous areas of light plaster
also making a substantial contribution to it.
Despite the fact that the building represents, on the one
hand, a convincing example of the influence of supraregional, maybe even supranational trends well-known already
from the creation of A.Loos, Víšek´s lifelong model, the building raises, on the other hand, the question if the architecture
in small towns was to go this direction.
Masaryk Trade
Continuation Schools
(at present Secondary Technical and Art School and
Higher-Learning Technical School)
Jaroslav Grunt; 32 Brandlova Street, Hodonín
1929-1930
This two-storey, free-standing block was on one side perpendicularly adjoined, through a narrow link, by a squareshaped pavilion housing workshops while on the other side
it was adjoined, on the longitudinal axis, by a canopy for
bicycles and utilities. The main building was designed as
a two-wing structure with classrooms facing onto the yard
while the other rooms (director’s office, staffroom, storage
rooms etc.) were oriented toward the street. The storage
rooms and classrooms were interconnected and furnished
with built-in furniture. Placing the metal workshop and
wooden workshop into the side pavilion made it possible to
separate noisy and non-noisy school operations.
Three horizontal lines of regularly placed windows, the entrance with a triangular-shaped small roof supported by
a slim column, and a pair of large, oblong window apertures
above them articulate the oblong front of the main building.
The side facade is dominated by the vertical of the staircase
window made of glass bricks. The flat roof with pipe railing
served as a terrace.
Grunt’s first architectural assignment for Hodonín from the
turn of the 1920s and 1930s is an important turning point
also in the history of construction of the town of Hodonín
since it symbolically separates the ending decade represented prevailingly by A.Blažek´s one-sided creation, and the
following decade characterized by a moderate „regional“
appearance of purism and functionalism.
Tyrš Elementary School
(at present Basic and Nursery School)
Bohuslav Fuchs; 1 Vrchlického Street, Znojmo; 1931
(Town Elementary School; Bohuslav Fuchs; 33 Slovenská Street, Znojmo; 1931)
Since the capacity of schools in Znojmo ceased to be sufficient at the beginning of the 1930s, the Town Council decided to build two Czech elementary schools containing
nursery schools, too. It was Bohuslav Fuchs who was commissioned to make the design. He designed, in two locations,
two almost identical buildings, with their sides arranged in
opposite directions as the only difference between them.
Both of them have a well-readable ground plan composed
of two rectangles following each other on the longitudinal axis. A two-storey section with nine window axes was
reserved for the elementary school while the ground floor
block with six axes accommodated the nursery school. The
building is covered by a flat roof of different heights. The roof
covering the nursery school is used as a relaxation terrace
protected by metal railing with light wire fillings. The rectangular fronts are rhythmized by rows of large windows, which
give the interiors a maximum of light and air. A uniform, light
plaster, which replaced the colours and the facing of the facades originally designed, accentuates the light, almost
playful impression, which this psychologically favourably
dimensioned structure makes. As a result, the building lost,
indeed, its strong artistic element, which the colours and the
combination of various materials undoubtedly gave to it but
despite this fact, or just because of this fact, this building is
among the purest structures, which exemplify the heyday of
functionalism in Znojmo.
Kratochwil & Wozelka
Department Store
(at present a gambling house)
Robert Farsky; 5 Slepičí trh, Znojmo; 1930
Situated at the corner of Kovářská street and Slepičí trh (hen
market), the building of Kratochwil & Wozelka Department
Store, specializing in textile and haberdashery, was built
from the design by Brno-based German architect Robert
Farsky in a place where the Loos bookshop used to stand.
The building was the most significant intervention in the historic centre of Znojmo.
The conception of the front of this two-storey building oriented towards Horní náměstí is based upon the slightly
recessed segment-based corner section, richly articulated
by slim backing „engaged pillars“ and narrow windows between them. Also the open balconies, alternating with areas of window panes and solid wall sections, contribute, to
a great extent, to the artistically efficient arrangement of the
mass and, at the same time, to making it look lightweight.
The facade is dominated by a narrow milk-glass vertical in
a metal frame, with the business sign having been probably
placed in this vertical. The fashionably designed eye-see level
with large glass shop windows gives the final touches to the
metropolitan character of the building, which graduates,
again, with the articulated, drawn-inside corner entrance
with a ceiling also made of milk glass and metal.
It is predominantly the high number of curves and the vertical articulation that rank this little known but original structure, which shows respect, with its measure, also for the surrounding development, almost among those that belong to
the category of the late, so-called emotional functionalism.
Baťa House of Services
(at present Baťa Shoe Shop)
František Lydie Gahura – Arnošt Sehnal;
1 Horní nám, Znojmo.; 1928-1929
Baťa House of Services, the oldest local functionalist building, was built in the historical centre of Znojmo at the end
of the 1920s. Despite the fact that the company bought an
old corner house, in whose place the new building was to
have been built, as early as 1928, the company acquired,
due to disagreements with the Institute of Preservation of
Monuments in Brno, the permission to knock down the old
building and build a new one only in 1930, and – initially –
only on condition that only part of the old building would be
demolished while the other would only be adapted to meet
the needs of the company.
Originally, the plans were made by F.L.Gahura. Later on, they
were modified by another Zlín-based designer Arnošt Sehnal
who – certainly to the detriment of the final building – probably replaced the intended strip windows of what should
have been the first ferroconcrete building in Znojmo by drab
rows of typified three-fold windows. So, the compact block of
this four-storey building at the corner of Horní náměstí (Upper
square) and Kovářská street obtained a very cumbersome appearance, which was accentuated, to make matters worse, by
a minimum of segmenting elements, making the surrounding small buildings in its vicinity completely unimportant.
Revealing an apparent creative helplessness of the designers
of this „cube“ overdimensioned in both height and mass, the
building shows some artistic quality only in the glass eye-see
level section with bevelled entrance zone. This creative helplessness „showed off“ so much the more in comparison with
the Kratochwil & Wozelka Department Store, a building with
original design, which was situated not far from it.
The Villa for
JUDr. Josef Mareš
Jan Víšek; 4 Na Vyhlídce, Znojmo; 1931-1932
Josef Mareš, the former Lord Mayor of Znojmo, chose
a prime place above the valley of the Dyje river for his prestigious seat. Jan Víšek, Josef Mareš´ family friend, designed
an imposing building, which local builder L.Všetečka implemented with certain alterations, about which the designer
knew.
Besides the caretaker’s flat and the entrance, the ground
floor of this three-storey building with a roof semi-floor accommodates a hall connected by a staircase with another
floor reserved for the flat of Josef Mareš´ mother, and with
the dining room and the dwelling hall. The bedrooms and
the kitchen were on the first floor. Almost one third of the
roof was designed as a terrace, the roof semi-floor accommodated the servant’s and guest rooms.
The above-mentioned alterations manifested themselves
mainly in the exterior of the house where part of the originally open terraces was used as dwelling space. Round corners contributed to making the building look more dynamic.
There are strip windows running through the corners, making the mass look lightweight. In contrast to the light areas
of the facades with dark-green window frames and the railings, the interior furnishings, provided by a local carpenter
and supplemented by historical furniture owned by the family, are conservative.
Still in the possession of the Mareš family, this well-kept villa
is with no doubt among the most prominent examples of
private residential buildings representing functionalism in
Southern Moravia.
TRACING BACK
FUNCTIONALISM
IN SOUTH MORAVIA
Brno
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Prevailing in Czechoslovak architecture in the late 1920s and
in the 1930s, Functionalism is usually associated with big
centres – in southern Moravia predominantly with Brno. The
interest in Brno´s functionalism, which was regarded highly
for its exceptional qualities as early as the time of its rise, does
not ebb either today. The works of local architects contributed
substantially not only to shaping the picture of inter-war Brno,
which transformed, owing to them, into a modern metropolis,
but they also helped to disseminate functionalist ideas outside
Brno, even if they were coming in slowly there. With the exception of Kyjov and Znojmo, both of them towns with a higher
number of functionalist structures, they were prevailingly
isolated buildings, a phenomenon certainly due to the local
political, economic and cultural situation. In the southeast
of Moravia, particularly in Hodonín, where vivid, authentic
folk culture existed for a long time, there was, in addition,
a strong influence of national architectural engineering. In
spite of this, also here and in other places, buildings of surprisingly modern style rose. These buildings could compare
favourably even with those built in Brno.
By the way, visitors to southern Moravia can make sure of it
themselves if they set out for a journey focused on functionalist architecture to be seen in this interesting region of the
Czech Republic.
By Lenka Kudělková
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LEGEND
1. The Moravian Bank (at present Commercial Bank)
2. Brouk&Babka (at present Baťa Department Store)
3. The Convalaria Palace (at present a multipurpose shopping and
residential building and the editor’s office of the Mladá Fronta Dnes)
4. The Avion Hotel
5. The Savoy Café
6. The Zeman Café
7. Baťa Department Store (at present The Centrum Department Store)
8. The Alfa Palace
9. The First Moravian Savings Bank (at present the Czech Savings Bank)
10. The City Accommodation Office (at present the Čedok Travel Agency)
11. The Railway Station Post Office
12. The Riunione Adriatica di Sicurtà (at present a polyfunctional office
and residential building)
13. The Exhibition Centre
14. The New House Housing Estate
15. The Hus Congregation of Czechoslovakian Church Complex
16. Masaryk Dormitory
17. The General Pension Institute (at present the Supreme Court of
the Czech Republic)
18. Tenement Houses, Kotlářská Street
19. Regional Headquarters (at present The University of Defence)
20. Tenement Houses, Tábor Street
21. The Era Café
22. The Tugendhat Villa
23. The School, Černá Pole
24. The City Baths, Zábrdovice
25. O. Eisler´s Own House
26. The Vesna School and E.Machová Dormitory (at present Secondary Nurse School and Higher-Learning Medical School, Youth
Dormitory)
27. J. Kroha´s Own House
28. B. Fuchs´ Own House