Jana Matoušek’s apartment building
1938–1939

In 1939, the architecturally exceptionally valuable series of Functionalist apartment houses on Na Belánce was enhanced by the addition of the three-storey house No. 11, which was commissioned by the Pilsen property owner and building entrepreneur Jan Matoušek, who also owned other buildings and sites in the neighbourhood.

The house is situated on the corner site at the point where the narrow street turns perpendicularly towards the railway line. Due to the restricted space, the site plan already established that the immediate vicinity of the bend must remain undeveloped. This resulted in the creation of a small green area towards which the author of the plans faced the front facade, enlivened with a number of artistic features, such as a vertical glazed expanse above the entrance, illuminating the stairwell, and an almost avant-garde balcony with steel tube balustrade, intentionally set on the uppermost floor, almost on the very edge of the building. Below it the shape of the aforementioned glazed expanse is repeated in the form of an oblong relief frame. The street frontage, on the contrary, adheres to the overall architectural look of the housing block, characterised by the alternation of shallow projecting sections of various heights and widths and the use of expansive windows. The space between the windows on the ground floor is filled with tiling resembling brickwork.

The house contained a total of nine rather modest two- and three-room flats with kitchens and bathrooms. Each of the larger flats also included a small maid’s room. The basement spaces also had two garages.

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