Jindřich Freiwald

Biography

Architect Jindřich Freiwald and the architectural firm he ran together with Jaroslav Böhm worked on a great number of projects built in the Czech countryside. Freiwald graduated from a technical college in Prague. His university studies were interrupted by First World War I: at first, he studied in 1913–1915, and after he returned from military service, he studied at Jan Kotěra’s special architectural school at the Academy of Fine Arts in 1917–1918 [1]. Kotěra considered Freiwald one of his most talented students and recommended him to Mayor František Ulrich as a member of the new generation of architects to work on the development of Hradec Králové. Already before World War I, Freiwald designed the façade of the Start Hotel and an unbuilt tenement house. After the war, he worked for construction cooperatives, banks and private owners in Hradec Králové.

But he did not work on more important projects until after World War I. In 1919, he designed terraced houses for the Ořechovka villa colony at 288–299 and 337–340 Klidná Street and at 264–271 a 341–350 Dělostřelecká Street. In Prague, he designed the cooperative colony in Na Perníkářce Street; in Hradec Králové, cooperative apartment houses in Čelakovského Street (1920). In the early 1920s, Freiwald collaborated with Jaroslav Böhm, focusing primarily on developing ideal layouts and decorative forms of affordable housing and designing ideal duplexes and fouplexes (for the city of Opava) [2]. Freiwald and Böhm created an original synthesis of strictly modernist features promoted by Kotěra’s school before WWI and features borrowed from traditional architecture, local regional sources and historical architecture. Examples include detached and terraced houses in Kolín (no. 19–23), Sušice (the “Benátky” quarter of 1924), Duchcov (1922–1924), and submissions to competitions for type houses in Spořilov (1925) and Mělník (1927), all published in various versions in the representative publication Naše stavby (Our Buildings) [3]. Freiwald also designed bourgeois villas, for example, manufacturer Ganz’s villa in Pardubice (9 Jahnova Street, 1921) or Schwarzkopf’s villa in Sušice (154/II T. G. Masaryka Street, 1925–1930). The vila of factory owner Nejedlý and his family in Kukleny near Hradec Králové (designed between 1923 and 1924) was never built.

During the late 1920, Freiwald and Böhm’s studio began to focus on designing major public buildings for small towns: savings banks and other banks, theatres, churches, and schools. Working on these designs, Freiwald proved to be a sufficiently variable architect who was able to meet both conservative and progressive demands of the owners. His probably most conservative project was the theatre in Hronov (1927–1930) with an aedicula façade and a classically segmented architrave. The theatres in Chrudim (1931–1934) and Kolín (1937–1939) combined undetailed lesene monumental morhphology with the modernist grammar (alternating smooth and brickwork surfaces). Like the savings banks, the theatre buildings included a wide range of forms: from the decorative (Kolín, 1923–1925) and monumental ones (Nové Město nad Metují, 1929–1930, and Hronov, 1936–1939) to the predominantly modern ones (Libochovcie, 1934; Polička, 1936–1937, and Mělník, 1937–1938). Freiwald and Böhm used modern monumental forms also in the design of the trade school in Sušice (1929–1930). Progressive avant-garde forms, reminiscent of contemporary sacral projects designed by Josef Gočár and Pavel Janák, were used in the design of the Czechoslovak Hussite Church in Nové Město nad Metují (1933–1934).

During WWII, Jindřich Freiwald did not work on any designs but he wrote a typological guide to modern “homes from homes” – cottages and weekend houses in the country and countryside, published posthumously in 1947 [4]. Freiwald died during the liberation of Prague on 8 May of 1945.

His work was probably best described by architectural historian Martin Horáček. To him, Freiwald and Böhm’s designs “were able to include any style, from geometric Art Nouveau, rondocubism and functionalism through the New Tradition to regional vernacular architecture. The studio represented a decent standard; their family houses and buildings amenities became part of the inventory of many small Czech towns” [5].

LZL

Notes

[1] Comp. Ladislav Zikmund-Lender, Struktura města v zeleni: Moderní architektura v Hradci Králové, Hradec Králové 2017, p. 121

[2] Comp. Pavel Vlček (ed.), Encyklopedie architektů, stavitelů, zedníků a kameníků v Čechách, Prague 2004, p. 185

[3] Jindřich Freiwald; Jaroslav Böhm, Naše stavby, Prague 1924.

[4] Jindřich Freiwald, Chaty, sruby, domky: zásady rekreačního bydlení, Prague 1947

[5] Martin Horáček, Za krásnější svět: tradicionalismus v architektuře 20. a 21. století, Brno 2013, pp. 236–237

Other Works

Independent projects:

1912
R. T. villa in v Tábor

1914
Façade of the Start Hotel in Hradec Králové

1919
Ořechovka colony in Prague, 288–299 and 337–340 Klidná Street, 264–271 and 341–350 Dělostřelecká Street

Projects with Jaroslav Böhm:

1921–1922
Tenement cooperative houses in Hradec Králové, 637–639 Čelakovského a K. H. Máchy Streets

1921
Manufacturer Ganz’s villa in Pardubice

1921–1923
Cooperative colony in Na Perníkářce Street, Prague–Smíchov

1921–1923
"Na Hradbách” tenement houses in Kolín

1921–1923
U Matky Boží colony in Louny

1921–1923
“Na Zálabí” municipal family houses in Kolín

1921–1923
State colonies in Khust, Ruthenia (now Ukraine)

1921–1923
Municipal houses in Uzhhorod, Ruthenia (now in Ukraine)

1922
Vet Hostýnek’s house in Pardubice, 126 Štrossova Street

1922–1923
Tenement house of Mr. and Mrs. Kratochvíl in Pardubice, 1000 Havlíčkova Street

1922–1924
Colony in Duchcov, Dělnická and Družby Streets

1923–1924
“Na Zálabí” tenement houses in Kolín, 678–686 U Borků Street, U Hřiště, Sadová

1923–1924
Savings Bank in Kolín, 44 Karlovo náměstí Square

1923–1924
Trade and office house in Pardubice, 1035, 1040 Havlíčkova Street

1924
“Benátky” houses in Sušice

1924-1926
Tenement houses in Pardubice, 1113, 1114, and 1080 náměstí Čs. Legií Square

1925–1930
Schwarzkopf’s villa in Sušice, 154/II T. G. Masaryka Street

1926–1930
Savings Bank in Sušice, 8 Poštovní Street

1926–1930
Post office in Sušice

1927
Mining colony in Rtyně nad Bílinou, no. 90–107

1927-1930
Jirásek Theatre in Hronov, 500 náměstí Čs. armády Square

1927–1932
Administrative and residential house of the First Mutual Insurance Company (První vzájemná pojišťovna) in Hradec Králové, 828 Kotěrova Street and 829 Divišova Street

1928–1929
Municipal Savings Bank in Červený Kostelec, 120 náměstí T. G. Masaryka Square

1928–1929
Czech Savings Bank in Nové Město nad Metují, 30 Komenského Street (1928–1929)

1929–1930
Trade school in Sušice, 9 Poštovní Street

1930
National Bank in Tábor, 521 Tyršova Street

1930–1934
Theatre in Chrudim, 6 Čs. partyzánů Street

1931
Civil credit union in Strakonice, 270 Na Stráži Street

1931–1939
Municipal Theatre in Kolín, 557 Smetanova Street

1932
Savings Bank in Bystřice Pernštejnem, 298 Masarykovo náměstí Square

1933
Municipal Savings Bank in Dobruška, 11 Františka Ladislava Věka Street

1933–1934
Czechoslovak Hussite Church in Nové Město nad Metují

1933–1934
Municipal Savings Bank in Úpice

1933–1934
Savings Bank in Písek, 27/19 Velké náměstí Square

1933–1937
Savings bank in Olešov, 24 náměstí Dr. E. Beneše Square

1934
Savings bank in Libochovice, 47 náměstí 5. května Square

1934–1936
District Credit Union Bystřice pod Pernštejnem, 57 Masarykovo náměstí Square

1935
District savings bank in Sobotka, 440 Boleslavská Street

1935–1936
Savings bank in Luhačovice, náměstí 28. října Square

1935–1936
Savings bank in Klatovy, 1 náměstí Míru Square 166–1671 Křížová Street

1936
Savings bank in Železný Brod, 37 náměstí 3. května Square

1936-1937
Municipal Savings Bank in Polička, 184 Palackého náměstí Square

1936–1939
Municipal Savings Bank in Hronov

1937–1938
Savings bank in Mělník

1938
Savings bank and hotel in Jevíčko, 12 Palackého náměstí Square

1938
Agricultural Bank in Hradec Králové, 292 Havlíčkova Street

Literature

Jindřich Freiwald; Jaroslav Böhm, Naše stavby, Praha 1924
Pavel Vlček (ed.), Encyklopedie architektů, stavitelů, zedníků a kameníků v Čechách, Praha 2004, s.184–185
Alžběta Jankulíková, Jindřich Freiwald a česká meziválečná divadelní architektura, diplomová práce, Filozofická fakulta UK v Praze, Ústav pro dějiny umění, Praha 2014
Jakub Potůček; Vendula Potůčková, Slavné stavby Jindřicha Freiwalda, Praha 2015
Ladislav Zikmund-Lender, Struktura města v zeleni: Moderní architektura v Hradci Králové, Hradec Králové 2017, s. 110–127
http://www.arch-pavouk.cz/index.php/architekti/663-freiwald-jindrich, vyhledáno 5. 2. 2019

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