Mr and Mrs Liska’s Residential House

Until the early 1920s, architect Oldřich Liska, who worked in Hradec Králové since 1908, lived in his older house in Albertova Street, co-financed by architect Josef Fňouk. After 1921, Liska had enough experience to start his own design studio. In the atmosphere of the post-war boom, he took advantage of the state and municipal support of the construction industry (interest-free loans, house tax exemption). He bought a vacant building plot next to his pre-war project designed for industrialist Josef Nevyhoštěný, and in the fall of 1922, he presented a plan of a three-storey residential building with an attic apartment. His main motive was to build a new representative house for his own family and a design studio and to earn money from the rental and sale of the flats to maintain the building.

The house was built between November 1922 and August 1923 by Václav Nekvasil and Robert Schmidt’s building and architectural company. The original plan underwent several changes. Originally, the street façade was divided into a decorative ground floor with arched motifs of the national style (inspired by the contemporary projects by Josef Gočár), and the balustrades above the windows on the first and second floors, a crown bracket cornice (arched brackets) and four detached dormer windows referring to classic architecture. The architect, apparently influenced by Josef Gočár (e.g. his design of the Legiobank building in Prague the construction of which started in 1921), decided to revise his project. On the façade, he designed a motif of balustrades and divided the street front with arcs and circles between the windows. The civilist decorative relief strip between the second and third floors became a new dominant feature (apparently referring to Gutfreund’s relief on the Legiobank façade). Four more reliefs were placed between the cornices dividing the first and second floor. The ornaments reflect the great hobby of Mr and Mrs Liska, the amateur theatre. The last change to the original plan included replacing the four dormer windows for the attic flat with just two.

On the ground floor, there were two business premises. The architect divided them with the main entrance hall and stairs to the upper floors. The first floor was designed as a flat for Liska’s family. The staircase led to the technical office and establishment of his design studio. Opposite, there was the kitchen and restroom facing the backyard. The space facing the street included three rooms. The second and third floors were divided into four identical two-room flats; this layout was also used in the attic.

Liska lived in the house with his family until the end of 1932 when the villa with a studio he designed for himself was completed in Střelecká Street. However, Mr and Ms Liska owned the residential house in Švehlova Street even then and did not probably sell it until 1947 when they moved from Hradec Králové to Silesian Opava. The building is still used for the residential purposes; on the ground and first floors there are business premises and offices.  

MB