The villa of the tenant of the bulk of the spa buildings in Teplice nad Bečvou, situated on a steep slope above the valley, brought a fresh,“Le Corbusier” functionalist morphology into an environment of historicising and Art Nouveau buildings. The husband-and-wife duo used the complicated plot to create a generous volumetric composition based on the contrast of horizontals and verticals.
Ladislav Říhovský originally approached the architect Alois Jambor from Hranice with a proposal for a new house. However, his constructivist-looking project from 1930 did not convince Říhovský, and so three years after that – probably on the recommendation of the architect Karel Kotas, who was working at the spa at the time – he turned to the Oehlers, who had established their own architectural practice only the previous year. Alois Jambor eventually participated in the construction as a contractor.
The house is formed by two blocks with reinforced concrete masonry skeletons of unequal height, which intersect on the plan of a letter T. Perpendicular to the slope there is the main, albeit narrow, two-storey wing with a roof terrace, which is ingeniously topped by a curved side extension that accentuates the asymmetrical composition of the house and the verticality of its central part. The calm horizontality of the one-storey lower side wings set along the contour of the slope provided a contrast with this. The ingenious arrangement of the masses ensured that the villa on the slope did not create an undesired massive impression when viewed from a distance. The house subscribed to Le Corbusierʼs emotionally tuned line of functionalism, especially through the use of strip windows, tubular railings, exposed piles, a bright clean façade, etc., all of which contributed to the overall fragile expression.
In addition to the technical facilities, the basement contained a laboratory and a caretaker's flat, while the ground floor was dominated by the main living area with a terrace and access to the garden. The first floor concentrated private rooms with facilities.
The architectural sophistication of the villa, which is fully able to bear comparison with the top European functionalist buildings for family housing, is evidenced by its publication in the leading foreign periodicals Lʼarchitecture dʼaujourdʼhui and Forum (1936).
In the second half of the 20th century, the house met a turbulent fate. After nationalisation in 1959, it became the seat of the spa headquarters. Its elegantly balanced proportions and attention to detail were completely obscured by an adaptation in 1978, during which the ground-floor wing was extended, the terrace built over, and an entrance vestibule added. Although the house was declared an immovable cultural monument as early in 1991, it continued to deteriorate as a result of frequent changes of owners. In 2007-2008 it was reconstructed in a utilitarian manner and divided into seven flats.
AW (translation by SG)
Selected literature
Tomáš Pospěch, Hranice, Teplice nad Bečvou a okolí. Architektura 1815–2018, Hranice 2018, pp. 138–141.
Petr Pelčák – Vladimír Šlapeta – Ivan Wahla (eds.), Elly Oehler/Olárová – Oskar Oehler/Olár. Architektonické dílo (exhibition catalogue), Brno – Olomouc 2007.
MM [Martina Mertová], Vila Ladislava Říhovského, in: Pavel Zatloukal (ed.), Slavné vily Olomouckého kraje, Olomouc 2007, pp. 125–127.
Elly a Oskar Oehlerovi, Innenräume der Architekten, Forum 6, 1936, pp. 132–135.
Lʼarchitecture d´aujourd´hui 7, 1936, č. 1, p. 53.
Sources
vila - Památkový Katalog (pamatkovykatalog.cz)
