When architect designs mainly exterior...

... and then tries to make it functional

Kateřina Čalounová
ZAN Rottová Janíková

Kytlicova vila was designed by architect Josef Gočár. He belonged to the older generation of Baba architects. Therefore his work contains more traditional elements than other buildings. 

The building has noble exterior which does not fully correspond with interior. The interior is designed more traditionally and does not fully exploit possibilities of skelet system.

The most interesting part of the building is its volume. It is divided into several horizontal parts. The plain block of basement, ground floor and first floor is disrupted by two terraces and the winter garden. The horizontal appearance is strengthened by windows and terrace.

9. 3. 2015, Kateřina Čalounová

Volume, 25. 2. 2015, Kateřina Čalounová

Exterior is made not only by volumes. What would a house be without construction? And every construction changes the way house looks. That is why I have made a model of load bearing structures. The house is getting more fragile as it is getting near to the street. The back wall is made from bricks, the central part is concrete and the front wall is from brick pilasters.

Construction, 5. 3. 2015, Kateřina Čalounová

The interior is designed in a traditional way. Concrete columns allow to make big open spaces, but this house does not use this possibility. The space is splited into several quite small rooms.

10. 3. 2015, Kateřina Čalounová

For the first sight the position of rooms does not have any rules. But after a closer look you can see, that several parts are designed in a modul.

9.3. 2015 Kateřina Čalounová

The construction determines dimensions of rooms and also their function. As you can see from the diagram below, technical rooms are placed on the back of the house. They do not need sunlight and big windows, therefore they can be next to the wall.

Second line goes across whole house and makes a communication. Another communication can be seen next to the front facade. 

Front facade is situated on south, has a lot of sunlight and beautiful view, therefore there are placed living spaces.

6. 3. 2015, Kateřina Čalounová

You can see this also in the sketches showing the amount of serving and served spaces.

serving - obsluhující

served - obsluhované

6. 3. 2015, Kateřina Čalounová

Two communication corridors may look good on the plan, but in reality they split rooms into many small spaces. In the diagrams below is shown, how communications in the house create spaces and subspaces.

This diagram is not that critical and shows the possible spaces and subspaces. The most interesting part is around the winter garden. There are several possibilities how space can look, depending on doors between winter garden and living room. What is unusual and a bit unpractical in this house, is the fact, that there is only one entrance to the front terrace. Terrace could be more connected to other rooms too.

5. 3. 2015, Kateřina Čalounová

Second diagram I made is more critical. If all of the communications would be used, there would be almost no place left for the furniture. Inhabitants of the house are now not using the communication next to the front facade, because they need more space.

5. 3. 2015, Kateřina Čalounová

The comunication next to the facade allows us to feel the lenght of the horizontal window while walking through the house. It connects rooms together and makes the space more open.

But this would work much better in a bigger disposition, In small disposition it coveres a lot of space and make rooms quite uncomfortable.

Even though the interior is not very functional, it has many beautiful places. They are mostly connected with the view. This house has two types of windows. First one is a horizontal window across the whole front fasade. Through the window can bee seen big part of Prague. It supports the horizontal impression of the house.

25. 2. 2015, Kateřina Čalounová

You can see similar window type in villa Savoye from Le Corbusier.

Here you can see how Le Corbusier used a window as a frame of a painting.

http://www.archdaily.com/84524/ad-classics-villa-savoye-le-corbusier/villa-savoye_11/

The window is also going through the whole building.

http://www.archdaily.com/84524/ad-classics-villa-savoye-le-corbusier/villa-savoye_ken-mccown/

 Here are two smaller rooms, similar to Kytlicova vila. The window is across whole room, communication is placed next to it and it has a cabinet below the window.

Second type of window is a window to the winter garden.

It is a glazed wall with a door to the terrace and to the winter garden. The glass has many windowpanes and it makes a nice decoration of both the interior and the exterior. Unfortunately the view is hidden behind a tree. Nowadays the winter garden is not used for its original purpose, but it is a furniture storage.

25. 2. 2015, Kateřina Čalounová

25. 2. 2015, Kateřina Čalounová

 This winter garden is very similar to the winter garden in another Czech functionalism villa -  villa Vladimíra Nakládala from Lubomír Šlapeta.

http://slavnestavby.cz/?i=2337/vila-stanislava-nakladala

Another interesting element of the interior is the light. I draw two sketches which are showing, how Josef Gočár worked with light in the interior.

Here is once again the winter garden.

4. 3. 2015, Kateřina Čalounová

And here is a staircase with a window which is partly below the ground level.

4. 3. 2015, Kateřina Čalounová

While making this analysis I found the most important parts of the house for me. They will be my inspiration for my own design of a pavillion.

These parts are:

expressive window panes inspired by the winter garden

partly roofed terrace, possibly with pergola

plain mass with an asymmetric accent

5. 3. 2015, Kateřina Čalounová

I made few conceptual sketches of a building with those important elements. These are ideas that I will develop in my pavilion design.

5. 3. 2015, Kateřina Čalounová

Summary:

Kytlicova villa is on between the modern and traditional villa. It has facade with some rules and acts decently, traditionally. It is formed with three horizontal layers. The basement which copies the street line. The ground floor with a terrace and a winter garden. And the first floor, which is smaller and disrupts the mass. The second part of the first floor is a terrace, which is partly roofed and partly sheltered with a pergola. It makes a delicate transition, it is not the mass of the house, but it is not free space either.

Even though the technologies are modern, the house does not fully work with their possibilities. It does not create big open space, but it is split into several small rooms. These rooms are connected to a communication in the back, to the communication next to the facade and sometimes between themselves. This makes quite uncomfortable situation, when most of the space is covered with communication. I understand, that it is partly because the traditional way of designing and that it has some reason. But it is not fully functional.

As a modern house it does not have any ornaments and decorations, but the function of decoration was taken over by windows. The horizontal windows are supporting the main idea of the house. And the winter garden is decorating the house and disrupting the order.

I thank Pavel Fuchs for a good cooperation.