The Avant-Garde Era — on the road in Czechia

When Iconic Houses went online ten years ago, founder Natascha Drabbe could hardly have ima­gined that one day there would be an impressive 200 house-museums in her network. Her goal was to make iconic buil­dings, homes, artists’ houses and studios acces­sible to visitors and to network them inter­na­tio­nally. Since then, the work of the network based in the Net­her­lands has focused on pro­moting the archi­tec­tural heritage of Modernism.
In the Czech Republic, twelve of these buil­dings can be visited, including apart­ments and houses designed by Adolf Loos in Prague and Pilsen. These were part of the pro­gramme of the “Inter­na­tional Iconic Houses Con­fe­rence”, which also included houses in Brno, Vienna and Ljubljana.

The work of Adolf Loos in Pilsen

The Brno-born architect, publicist and critic, Adolf Loos is con­sidered one of the most important pio­neers of modern archi­tecture. He deemed orna­men­tation to be super­fluous, the concept of the total work of art over­bearing. His works exude a special sen­suality, his use of high-quality mate­rials and their crafting is mas­terly. He achieved inter­na­tional fame not least because of his Raumplan [lay-out design}: a cle­verly con­ceived system of flowing rooms and mez­za­nines, with rooms con­nected to each other by stair­cases and ope­nings for interior views.

Tog­ether with Prague, Pilsen was one of the Czech boom­towns of Modernism. In the home of Urquell and Škoda, Loos received his first com­mission in 1907. In 1928 he designed an apartment for the Vogl family. Only the living room and dining room remain of the ori­ginal spa­cious apartment. For the visitor the tour is adven­turous: Between unre­mar­kable office cor­ridors, a door unex­pec­tedly opens into a world of cherry wood veneer and Japanese engraving.

The con­version of a house for Jan and Jana Brummel fol­lowed as early as 1929. Loos removed all the deco­rative fea­tures of the late 19th century facade, added an extension and in the interior imple­mented a sequence of rooms with various atmo­spheres.
Steven Brummel, one of the buil­der’s nephews, who was living abroad, saved the house from demo­lition in 1978. Within six months, the money needed for the purchase was raised in the USA. Extensive res­to­ration fol­lowed. Today, the apartment, including the con­tem­porary fur­niture, is one of Loos’ best-pre­served works in Pilsen.

Loos received one com­mission after the other. In 1931 he designed a magical apartment for Vilém Kraus and his wife. He covered the walls of the dining room with large mirror sur­faces facing each other, creating the illusion of an endless sequence of rooms. He covered the remaining walls with green, white-veined Cipollino marble and com­bined them with built-in fur­niture and a ceiling of recessed panels in dark brown mahogany.

A remar­kable living room for Helena and Hugo Semler fol­lowed in 1932. Here Loos covered the walls with artfully placed natural stone slabs of Bianco Fan­ta­stico. The black grain of the marble creates the impression of fan­ta­stical crea­tures. At the end of the main axis, he posi­tioned a brick fire­place, above which there was ori­gi­nally a mir­rored wall surface. An extension of the living room planned by Loos was never carried out.

Tog­ether with his assistant Heinrich Kulka, Loos designed a very special resi­dence for Sem­ler’s brother, the wealthy metal manu­fac­turer, Oskar Semler and his wife, Jana. It is also the only one of the Pilsen pro­jects in which the so-called Raumplan was imple­mented. All rooms are cle­verly layered over several levels and ori­ented inwards. After Loos’ death in 1933, Kulka com­pleted the project.

Inci­den­tally, all Pilsen inte­riors can be explored in a relaxed way during a pre-booked guided walk.

“I am a cos­mo­po­litan, just like every European” — Adolf Loos

Explo­ration, guided tours and lec­tures were central ele­ments of the “Inter­na­tional Iconic Houses Con­fe­rence”, attended by sup­porters, friends and members of the network from all over Europe, the USA and Japan. The compact and infor­mative pro­gramme led to houses, studios and housing estates that are wit­nesses to the bright as well as dark history of 20th century Europe. This was also com­me­mo­rated at the con­fe­rence. For many builders and clients, the Golden Avant-garde Era ended abruptly. They were dis­pos­s­essed, deported and mur­dered by the Nazis. The few sur­vivors lost their pro­perty to the new rulers, the Soviets. Many went into exile, but the houses remained. They fell into dis­repair, were for­gotten and then redis­co­vered decades later. Today they are revived icons and represent a facet of Europe that Adolf Loos defined thus: “I am a cos­mo­po­litan, just like every European.”

Author: Hendrik Bohle, thelink.berlin

Images (all): © Hendrik Bohle, thelink.berlin

Note: If you are inte­rested, holiday archi­tecture in the Classic Modernism style can be found here.

Author info:

Architect Hendrik Bohle runs a digital magazine on building culture tog­ether with jour­nalist Jan Dimog. On thelink.berlin they have been telling about their dis­co­veries in Europe for years, espe­cially about the con­nec­tions between people and archi­tecture.
When they are not on the road, they curate high-profile exhi­bi­tions, such as the tra­velling exhi­bition on Arne Jacobsen’s archi­tecture.