Karel Kovařík, a prominent builder from Přerov, applied his experience from the Baťa design office to the design of his own villa. The architecture evokes the impression created by Zlínʼs interwar architecture and is exceptional not only for its aesthetics, but also for its historical context, as it is one of the few architectural achievements of the war period.
At the beginning of the 1940s, the builder Karel Kovařík built his own house, together with a representative company seat, on Macharová Street, near the Přerov cemetery. The villa is at the end of a row of houses, which allowed the architect to work freely and creatively with the volume of the building. The result is an exterior that differs fundamentally from other houses not only on that street, but also in the entire town. Late functionalism, the experience of Zlín, and perhaps even feelings caused by the uncertainty of war stamp the building with a specific earthiness. The impression of stability and solidity seems to bridge difficult times better. However, there is no suggestion of any cumbersomeness – the confident scale of the house is based on volumetric and material contrasts and balanced proportions. An ideal calling-card for a construction company!
It has a layout with an irregular rectangular plan, following the line of the street. The house has three above-ground floors and one underground. The overall mass of the building consists of two parts – a vertical two-storey part, followed by a single-storey horizontal part with a terrace. The flat roofs and the alternation of natural light plaster with stucco masonry are reminiscent of the atmosphere of Baťaʼs factory and residential buildings in Zlín. The house also has a garden and a front garden, which is separated from the street by a fence with a plastered plinth and lattice posts.
On the ground floor of the vertical part there was an apartment for rent, while the remaining spaces were occupied by the office of Kovaříkʼs construction company and a hall with a staircase leading to the ownerʼs private apartment. In the southern part of the house there were living areas with a terrace, while in the north the kitchen and bedrooms were situated.
The building has been protected since 2005 and is considered not only a unique intact preserved work of Karel Kovařík, but also a quality example of functionalist architecture. The masses of the building, floor plans, and the entire external structure of the façade have not undergone any major reconstruction and correspond to their original state.
NK (translation by SG)
Selected literature
Martina Mertová, Proměny Přerova mezi dvěma světovými válkami aneb Jak si vedli domácí a jak hosté v napínavém architektonickém zápasu, in: Jan Janák – Jan Jeništa – Klára Jeništová et al., Kapitoly z výtvarné kultury města Přerova: Architektura, výtvarné realizace, design, Přerov 2016, s. 8–23.
Sources
Martina Horáčková, Architektura střední Moravy, 1918–1945: Přerov, Kroměříž, Bystřice pod Hostýnem, Holešov, Kojetín (diploma thesis), Katedra teorie a dějin výtvarných umění FFUP, Olomouc 2004.
vila Karla Kovaříka - Památkový Katalog (pamatkovykatalog.cz)
