Václav Jílek’s apartment houses
1938–1939

The pair of three-storey terraced apartment houses Nos. 61 and 63 at the end of the newly forming Čechova Street was erected in the late 1930s by the Pilsen building firm of Václav Jílek as a typical “development” project of the time, in which the builder, following completion of the shell construction, sold off the individual houses to the new owners. In terms of the formal conception of the facades, the houses also represent a typical example of Pilsen Functionalist residential houses. Each of the facades is divided by a raised, smooth “Brizolit” cement-rendered projecting section, with rounded edges and contrasting ceramic tiling applied to the side and ground floor areas of the facade as well as to the window reveals. Also characteristic of this type of house is the siting of the staircase on the courtyard side of the house so that the inter-storey placement of the windows would not disturb the symmetrical pattern of windows on the street-side facade. Almost identical construction objectives and formal layout can be seen in the other adjacent terraced houses in this part of Čechova Street. The regular size of the sites, almost uniform height of the houses and similar layout of the facades has a positive influence on the overall feel of the block.

Jílek’s houses fitted two flats on each floor with two to four rooms and essential hygienic facilities. The larger apartments were also equipped with small balconies and loggias facing the inner courtyard. But for one example, the houses are today in a good, maintained condition. Their original Modernist style was unfortunately partly undermined by a dormer superstructure built on the roof of house No. 61.

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