Complex of apartment buildings for the employees of the Joint Stock Company, formerly the Škoda Works in Pilsen
1923–1925 / 1939–1940

“The Joint Stock Company, formerly Škoda Works in Pilsen" had a complex of terraced residential houses built for its employees along Raisova and Dvořákova Streets in the years 1924–1925, whose formal concept and layout was in harmony with the contemporary production of local building and housing associations (see e.g. C3–1671, C3–1596, C2–1696, C2–333). Thanks to a combination of related rectangular geometric shapes, typical Classicising building elements (triangular gables, entrance "porticos" with classical pilasters, fluted lesenes) and sometimes even Decorativist motifs, the set gives the impression of a an integrated architectural whole. Both corner houses stand out (no. 27 Dvořákova Street and no. 23 Politických Vězňů Street), exceeding the neighbouring four-storey buildings by one floor. They are finished with a low attic with windows lighting its space and with a rather sober plastic decoration (the Škoda Works logo on the facade of the house no. 27 standing out).

The houses centred over ninety, usually two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartments with living rooms mostly oriented towards the street and the necessary operational facilities, a kitchen and a maid's room in the courtyard. The corner houses were equipped with electric lifts.

As early as during the Protectorate – between July 1939 and the same month the following year – two more buildings (nos. 12 and 14) were commissioned by the Joint Stock Company and added to the set of apartment houses in Raisova Street. Their facades formally continued the existing buildings and – despite the then current Functionalist trends in architecture – the original decorative solution from the first half of the 1920s. In contrast, the rational layout of their apartments reflected the era’s trends in construction – residential rooms were no longer pass-through, but were accessible from the hall, and the maid's room was replaced with a spacious pantry, etc.

The entire set of apartment buildings, together with the similar development on Máchova Street (C6–1621), ranks among the best preserved realisations for the employees of Škoda Works, supposed to provide them with adequate space for high-quality, modern and healthy living at a time of a housing shortage.

At present, the set of buildings is undergoing a gradual renovation, which mostly respects the original architectural design, including the original segmenting of windows and doors. The overall favourable impression is, however, disturbed by modern-day roof dormers in places.

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