Tenement House, type “C 4”

As part of the housing shortage after WWI, city officials opted for significant investments in housing construction and the promotion of cooperative building initiatives. To streamline contract distribution, a group of architects and builders formed the Association of Contractors. Its members primarily designed and constructed tenement buildings.
 

The house at 593 Mánesova Street was included in the emergency housing construction plan and received government subsidies. Construction commenced in October 1921 and concluded on 15 August 1922. The building was handed over for use the very next day, and its retroactive approval was granted on 18 December 1922.
 

The symmetrically structured building boasts a notable decorative façade. The ground floor windows, including the central portal, feature straight-arched designs, with the entrance and two middle windows adorned with stepped lesenes. The first and second floors are articulated by a subtle high pilaster order. The two outer window axes showcase broader lesenes with pierced crystal molded recesses, while the four middle window axes are articulated by plain, shallow lesenes. The two triple outer lesenes with niches incorporate sculptural decoration, alternating between two reliefs of baskets of flowers and two opposing figural reliefs depicting nude females. The left figure is depicted combing her long hair, while the right one holds a flower horn and covers her head with a veil. The second and third floors are separated by a wide strip, featuring four medallions with sculptural reliefs in the middle, each portraying a different theme from the realm of fauna and flora. On the third floor, the four central windows are separated by lesenes with diagonal bands of color and surmounted by a triangular pediment, while the pair of side windows, divided into three parts, feature stepped lining. The prominent crown cornice is supported by metopes above each window axis.
 

The basement comprised two large cellar rooms: a laundry and cellar on the left side facing the courtyard, and a caretaker’s apartment on the right side facing the courtyard, equipped with one room, kitchen, toilet, pantry, and hallway. From the ground to the third floors, there were always two generously proportioned symmetrical apartments, each containing three passage rooms facing the street, a pantry facing the courtyard, an open pavilion, a toilet, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a maid's room. The attic featured a large attic space, with an additional small apartment in the left part facing the courtyard, comprising a room, kitchen, hall, toilet, and pantry.
 

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