Apartment buildings

Following the principles of Karel Teige’s theoretical concept of the “smallest apartment”, in the 1930s  Čeněk Musil designed several buildings for the Building Co-operative for the Construction of Workers’ and Families’ Houses for Jičín and its Surrounds (Stavební družstvo dělnických a rodinných domků pro Jičín a okolí), e.g. in Barákova and, indeed, right here in Tylova Street. The two four-storey, identical apartment buildings, with four apartments per floor perfectly illustrate Musil’s approach at that time to this type of building. His apartment buildings stand out thanks to their functionalism, with its characteristic austerity. The primary aim is to fulfil the building’s function and ensure the efficient layout of individual flats (here just one room, kitchen and WC/toilet), which were tucked away behind the simple shell of a rather bland façade. In this case, the façade is segmented by alternating horizontal bands, while the inter-window surfaces were formed from fair faced brickwork, and also by the receding, strikingly vertical ribbon windows illuminating the stairwell section.

Similar social housing is provided in seven apartments by the corner building opposite, also built according to designs produced by Čeněk Musil’s architectural office.

(GA)