Vily a rodinné domy v Hradci Králové 1900—1950
Ladislav Jackson
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Abstract
The town of Hradec Králové was tied up by a classicist fortress for a major part of the 19th century. The fortress was abolished and started to be pulled down in the 1870s, thus the vast building sites were created to build a new city. The area Morušovka (moruše means a mulberry), located on the Orlice riverbank, was the place where the first villas were built after 1902 in the Renaissance Revival style by Václav Rejchl Snr. Another villa quarter was located on the boundary between Hradec Králové and Pražské Předměstí. The first villas were built along the Střelecká street in 1908—1910, followed by the others built after WWI, making this area the biggest villa quarter. The regulatory plans dated 1885, 1904, 1908—1909, and 1925—1927 show there were many more villa quarters in the process of planning. Václav Rejchl Snr., Vladimír Zákrejs and Josef Šejna designed a villa quarter in the northern sector of the town that was supposed to be either the workers’ garden town or, according to Oldřich Liska’s and Otakar Klumpar’s designs, the big villa quarter in the south-western part, with the adjacent workers’ town. Josef Gočár wanted to build houses and terraced houses in the south-eastern part and planned to finish the Orlice basin that lacked the center and facilities. In the late 1910s, Hradec Králové saw a variety of villas. One trend was represented by conservative architects, such as Jaroslav Pažout, František Jaroslav Černý, Václav Rejchl Snr., and Josef Fanta, who were inspired by historicisms, traditional architecture (half-timbering, cyclopean walls), and Art Nouveau ornaments. Oldřich Liska developed a remarkable decorative synthesis of cubism and classicism in his project of three villas in 1912—1913 for himself, Marie Sálová, and the Hypius family. They were opposed by progressive architects who were inspired by modern architecture represented by Jan Kotěra and his school. Vladimír Zákrejs, who build the villa for Václav Charvát and Václav Píša, ranked among his apprentices. In 1909, Josef Gočár designed a villa for Antonín Petrof and it was one of the most progressive designs published in Volné směry magazine. However, the Petrof family opted for more conservative designs that were realized for brothers Jan and Antonín Jr. Although some architects, such as Rudolf Němec, designed mostly conservative buildings, they were rather modern in the case of the villas, such as Němec’s villa for Robert Schmidt. František J. Černý designed several Renaissance Revival villas back in 1912, yet he designed a much more modern house for himself at the same time. Some villas in traditional decorativism were designed after WWI, such as terraced houses by Josef Mudra or Čeněk Vorlíček’s villa. In about 1925, when the principles of purism and avant-garde international style started to arrive in the Czech Republic, these ideas were implemented in the villa architecture in Hradec Králové as well. The illustration may be the terraced houses by Josef Sedlák, Emílie Waldeková-Kmochová’s villa designed by František Janda, who was Jan Kotěra’s apprentice, or Anna Urbanová’s villa designed by Ondřej Rádl. The combination of traditional elements and modern space and elements was massively spread in Hradec Králové in the 1930s. The villas were designed by Jan Rejchl, Milan Babuška, Oldřich Liska, and Bohumil Waigant. The villa of the Cee family designed by Karel Horák is the only construction in Hradec Králové build in the international style inspired by Le Corbusier. The villas designed by the Jewish architect Kurt Spielmann are rather noteworthy; he designed the villa for the Fuchs family and the villa for the doctor Oldřich Smetana. The villas are designed traditionally, yet the interiors are connected and are functionally divided by zones and levels as in Adolf Loos’s work. His villas usually featured two staircases – the main and the operational ones – that made the operation of the house dynamic. The beginning of WWII saw the construction of 11 houses for German workers and 5 houses for the employees of the Škoda factory located in Slezské Předměstí. The author of the practical minimum living for five-member families was František Dus. The wooden prefabricated houses made of Swedish wood were inspired by the Hartl Austrian design, named after Wenzel Hartl, and built in the north-eastern part of Slezské Předměstí after the end of the war in 1950. This was the end of building the villas, houses, and houses for the employees funded by the individuals. After 1948 the construction was either self-built and self-funded, performed through the building cooperative, or the state and municipality.
