Jan Drbal’s garden apartment house
1939

The trio of top-class Functionalist buildings on the eastern half of Mírová Street gave this part of the villa area Bezovka a Modernistic, architecturally very progressive character which without doubt compared favourably even in the nationwide context of the time. These objects are the villa of Jiří Freund from the year 1932 (C4–1987), Vladislav and Linda Šimáček’s villa from the years 1933–1934 (C4–2054) and the garden apartment house of Jan Drbal from 1939 (C4–2249).

Jan Drbal had the latter and also the newest building of the trio, probably built as an investment. It contained four apartments and the unknown designer shaped the building in reference to the opposite villa of the Šimáček family, as manifested by the flat roof and slightly retracted right part of the street facade, which makes this three-storey apartment building appear less corpulent, and incorporates it naturally into the surrounding housing. The totally smooth and austere Purist facade is articulated by simple three-part windows effectively placed also in the corners, which further lighten the mass of the building, and a pair of balconies with Functionalist pipe railing.

During the second half of the last century, the house underwent several building alterations: in the 1960s garages were attached; and in 1977 it was adapted for the needs of a kindergarten designed for 75 children. Recent construction work on the building, which is now privately owned, respected the original mass solution, however, the facade was painted in a red-white colour scheme not corresponding with the original design.

AŠ – LV

Investor

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