Josef Hlavatý’s Tenement Houses

Plans signed by architect and builder František Jaroslav Černý, who was based in Silesian Suburbs on at 525 Pospíšilova Street, were drawn up in August 1927. Gočár’s design for

the façade, which is basically identical to Černý’s, dates from April 1928. The façade is defined by longitudinal balconies extending across the three central window axes on the first, second and third floors. In Černý’s original design there are distinctive window chambranles around the three-part, almost square windows and the taenia, a kind of support under

the crown cornice. These elements were removed in Gočár’s design – the façade was thus intended to be smoother and presumably more modern. However, the façades were eventually realised according to Černý’s original concept – with chambranles and taenia.

At the same time, however, it was the other way around: Gočár wanted the distinctive window chambranles, but they were not implemented in the end. 

 

The buildings are not exactly the same: house no. 738, closer to today’s Gočárova Street, has a symmetrical main entrance on the axis, while house no. 737, closer to Jeronýmova Street, has a chamfered entrance that is wider and has a passage to the common courtyard behind it. Both houses had four shops on the ground floor, which occupied the entire ground floor plan – the shops were connected to the courtyard by storage rooms (except for the middle shop in no. 737, behind which there was a stairwell). The house had a basement, there was one laundry room, and in no. 737 there was a common boiler room for both houses. In each house there was one apartment in the basement with a room and kitchen but no bathroom or toilet, and in house no. 738, there was one studio apartment. The layout of the floors was

the same in both No. 738 and No. 737. The left apartment was larger, with three rooms facing the square, interconnected by a double door, with the kitchen and the living hall with a door to the pavilion terrace facing the courtyard. The hall gave access to the pantry, toilet and alcove and the bathroom was accessed via the kitchen. Two rooms had access to the front balcony. The smaller, right-hand apartment had two rooms facing the square, one of which had access to a continuous balcony. The balcony was divided from the street by an invisible, subtle railing: the larger apartment had two-thirds of it available, the smaller one-third. The layout was the same on the second and third floors. The attic had three more apartments with one room and a kitchen and one garrison for the caretaker. Mr and Ms Hlavatý thus had nineteen apartments for rent: six three-room apartments, six two-room apartments, three one-room apartments with a bathroom, two without a bathroom, one studio apartment with a bathroom and one without. 

 

Josef Hlavatý’s houses show that Josef Gočár planned some houses in Ulrichovo náměstí Square as distinctive landmarks in a progressive, international style, while other houses were to be more traditional and not draw attention to themselves, forming a pandanus to architectural gestures. This is the case of the Ladislav Duran’s/Benefit Fund house or the two houses of Josef Hlavatý. Gočár left the degree of progressiveness up to the individual owners and their taste.

 

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