Apartment House Wolkerova
Wolkerák
Urban Concept
On the northern edge of the city, near Wolkerova Street, a unique residential solitary building was created in the 1960s. It is the apartment building, visible from afar, unusually shaped in an arc, known as Wolkerák. According to the original plan, a smaller rounded house, known as the small Wolkerák, was to be built beneath it, along Březová Alej Street. However, as we can read in the technical report, under the normalizing conditions of the 1970s, “due to the development of the material base and implementation conditions (reduction of labor intensity, increase in construction profitability, etc.)” it was transformed into an ordinary standardized panel house (type P SL 69). The planned shoe repair shop and newspaper and tobacco store were removed from the small Wolkerák project. The urban plan also accounted for a self-service building on Alšova Street, which was realized later.
The urban plan from 1964 is signed by architect Karel Hubáček, who, incidentally, had previously situate an experimental family house made of panels in this area, where he ultimately lived with his family. From the beginning, Jaromír Vacek, the author of the Wolkerák project, was also involved in the urban planning. The architects positioned a pair of modernist apartment buildings on the edge of an older villa district, and part of the slope towards the Liberecká Highlands – a hill with a lookout tower – had to be deforested for the Wolkerák. Surprisingly, however, they managed to sensitively integrate this massive monoblock into the landscape. The house, whose segmented floor plan follows the contour line, creates the impression that it gently leans against the rising ridge of the Jizera Mountains. The new building did not disrupt the atmosphere of the old villa development, which local residents initially feared.
Technology, Types of Apartments
The Wolkerák project was based on the construction system T 06 B, but Jaromír Vacek conceived it more as an experiment utilizing some standardized elements of this system from the outset. Václav Voda handled the challenging static and structural aspects.
Most of the panels were cast on-site in so-called mobile manufacturing, including the monolithic ceilings. This “traditional Liberec technology” was successfully tested by Vacek during the construction of the Liberec housing estates Králův Háj and Na Bídě. Wolkerák then perfected it and demonstrated its architectural and aesthetic advantages.
Wolkerák has 12 sections with three apartments on each floor. The northern sections (1–5) are ten stories high, while the southern ones (6–12) are only nine stories. Due to the high demand from cooperatives during the design phase, the building was extended by one section. The length of the building is 180 meters, which is more than half shorter than Liberec's "Hokejka" (see the Ruprechtice housing estate). The Wolkerák project included garages, a boiler room, a laundry, a drying room, and a clubroom, which the architect placed beneath the spacious terraces in front of the building. In the back section on the slope, there was then a storage tank for heating oil.
The layout of the apartments (most commonly three-room and studios) was cleverly designed by the author so that the central space facing west includes a kitchen connected to the dining room and living room. On the opposite eastern side towards the slope, Vacek placed small bedrooms, with one originally planned to have a large window and pipe railing “for better ventilation of bedding.” The apartments on the top floor of Wolkerák (3+1 and 4+1) offered a spacious terrace and comfortable amenities, including a fireplace. The technical report succinctly characterizes them as “an attempt and a hint of a potentially high-quality way of living”.
Given the unique layout solutions of the apartments in Wolkerák and their atypical conical shape dictated by the segmented floor plan, the designers commissioned the interior furnishings from the leading professional institution of the time – the Institute of Housing and Clothing Culture in Prague (ÚBOK) and Emanuele Kittrichová.
Artistic Decoration
On the terrace in front of Wolkerák stood a granite sculpture titled Sundial by the Liberec sculptor Oldřich Novotný. The abstract sculpture on a high pedestal bore bronze Roman numerals, which were cast in shadow by the edge of one of the bent prisms. Today, we find no artistic decorations here; however, the preserved bronze plaque on the façade proudly bears the names of the building's authors: Karel Hubáček, Jaromír Vacek, and project supervisor Antonín Urban.
The Housing Estate Today
Wolkerák has been cherished by its residents in recent years. The terraces in front of the building have been newly modified, creating an interesting space with benches and flowerbeds. The wooded slope behind the building has also been cleaned and trimmed by the homeowners' association for better use. Repairs to the building itself largely respected the original details, including the balconies with shutters, although this was not without minor deviations and implementation issues. Overall, Wolkerák appears brighter and more monochrome after the façade renovation. Discussions are currently underway about adapting the spaces under the terrace for a kindergarten or a community center for the building's residents. There is even consideration of building a small garage building. The Liberec Wolkerák deserves the status of a cultural monument – it is a unique solitary example, a representation of the idealistic vision of architecture and housing of the 1960s, much like the grand projects of that time, such as Etarea or Domurbia, which, however, were never realized. Wolkerák suggests where the development of mass housing could lead in freer conditions.
The Story of the Housing Estate
The northern edge of Liberec still retains its original spa and excursion character. The attractiveness of the place was supported at the beginning of the 20th century by the excursion restaurant in the People's Gardens and a romantic knightly castle with a lookout tower on the Liberecká Highlands. Beneath it, the forest lodge Heinrich Liebieg, later the Wolker Tuberculosis Sanatorium, was simultaneously built. After World War II, the area was transformed by the construction of Wolkerák and the neighboring terraced houses along Na Čekané Street, also designed by Jaromír Vacek.
“The designers are utilizing one of the most beautiful and healthiest building sites in the urban district,” the Liberec newspapers wrote in 1966. The intention to build in the pleasant environment of a villa neighborhood emerged from the initiative of the then Stavoprojekt. The identified gap at the foot of the Jizera Mountains was meant to fill the gap in the construction of apartments caused by delayed preparation of the housing estate in Ruprechtice. For architect Vacek, who was supported by Karel Hubáček in his authority, this was an opportunity in the relaxed atmosphere of the second half of the 1960s to change the criticized form of mass housing. The successful realization of the largely exceptional Wolkerák was aided by the involvement of a demanding investor, the housing cooperative Nisa, and the architect's good relationships with the supplier – Liberec Construction Company.
The generous “light gray monoblock for 1500 happy residents” (Vpřed newspaper, 1967) differs at first glance from all post-war panel house productions due to its organic curvature and sophisticated architectural design. The impressive structure includes the plasticity of the continuous concrete loggias and the vertical stripes of shading slats. Vacek, like other architects of post-war Liberec, focused on the pronounced horizontality of the building, accentuated by the hilly terrain of the city. Wolkerák immediately reveals the author's inspiration from Swiss and Scandinavian architecture, both in terms of attention to the individual values of housing – quality layouts and comfortable amenities – and emphasis on the aesthetic qualities of the house and its connection to nature. All apartments offer a unique view of the city and the Ještěd ridge. This Liberec unique rightly earned several architectural awards and became one of the most published apartment buildings.
At the time when Jaromír Vacek (1925-68) embarked on the solitary project of Wolkerák, he already had successful designs for residential buildings for Liberec housing estates Na Bídě (1963-65) and Králův Háj behind him (see separate text). This native of Nymburk arrived at the Regional Project Institute in Liberec in 1952 after studying architecture at the Czech Technical University in Prague. His most progressive residential building projects (Wolkerák, Na Čekané, Na Bídě II) date from the second half of the 1960s when he worked in the Liberec Stavoprojekt under the leadership of Karel Hubáček in studio S12. Jaromír Vacek did not live to see the completion of Wolkerák or the neighboring terraced houses. In 1968, he worked briefly in the newly founded Sial, but he suddenly died during a study trip to Switzerland. Architect Bohuslav Lisal took over supervision of the construction of Wolkerák after him.
Sources
Archive of the Building Office Liberec.
State District Archive Liberec, City National Committee Fund, Detailed Urban Plan of Wolkerova, inv. no. 449, D32.
In Liberec, a sanatorium for housing, Vpřed VI, 1965, no. 6 (February 9), p. 1.
Ladislav Vepřek, Architectural Expressions, Vpřed VII, 1966, no. 23 (June 7), p. 3.
Ladislav Vepřek, More Beautiful than in Králův Háj, Průboj 1965, no. 4 (January 17), p. 4.
Ladislav Vepřek, More Beautiful than in Králův Háj, Vpřed VIII, 1967, no. 20 (May 16), p. 1.
The Most Beautiful Panel House, Vpřed VIII, 1967, no. 4 (October 10), p. 1.
(sb), Liberec received 870 apartments, Vpřed XII, 1971, no. 3 (January 12), p. 2.
Liberec – Březová Alej, Architecture of Czechoslovakia XXXI, 1972, no. 1, pp. 35-37.
20 years of work by the Regional Project Institute in Ústí nad Labem, Ústí nad Labem 1969.
Eva Novotná, Wolkerova Apartment Block, in: Rostislav Švácha (ed.), Sial: Liberec Association of Engineers and Architects, Prague 2012, pp. 56–59.
Rostislav Švácha (ed.), SIAL, Arbor vitae 2010.
Svatopluk Technik, Liberec Houses Speak II, Liberec 1993.
Svatopluk Technik, Liberec Past and Present, Liberec 1980.
Kateřina Tomanová, Monuments and Sculptures of Liberec, Czech Society in Liberec 1989.
On the northern edge of the city, near Wolkerova Street, a unique residential solitary building was created in the 1960s. It is the apartment building, visible from afar, unusually shaped in an arc, known as Wolkerák. According to the original plan, a smaller rounded house, known as the small Wolkerák, was to be built beneath it, along Březová Alej Street. However, as we can read in the technical report, under the normalizing conditions of the 1970s, “due to the development of the material base and implementation conditions (reduction of labor intensity, increase in construction profitability, etc.)” it was transformed into an ordinary standardized panel house (type P SL 69). The planned shoe repair shop and newspaper and tobacco store were removed from the small Wolkerák project. The urban plan also accounted for a self-service building on Alšova Street, which was realized later.
The urban plan from 1964 is signed by architect Karel Hubáček, who, incidentally, had previously situate an experimental family house made of panels in this area, where he ultimately lived with his family. From the beginning, Jaromír Vacek, the author of the Wolkerák project, was also involved in the urban planning. The architects positioned a pair of modernist apartment buildings on the edge of an older villa district, and part of the slope towards the Liberecká Highlands – a hill with a lookout tower – had to be deforested for the Wolkerák. Surprisingly, however, they managed to sensitively integrate this massive monoblock into the landscape. The house, whose segmented floor plan follows the contour line, creates the impression that it gently leans against the rising ridge of the Jizera Mountains. The new building did not disrupt the atmosphere of the old villa development, which local residents initially feared.
Technology, Types of Apartments
The Wolkerák project was based on the construction system T 06 B, but Jaromír Vacek conceived it more as an experiment utilizing some standardized elements of this system from the outset. Václav Voda handled the challenging static and structural aspects.
Most of the panels were cast on-site in so-called mobile manufacturing, including the monolithic ceilings. This “traditional Liberec technology” was successfully tested by Vacek during the construction of the Liberec housing estates Králův Háj and Na Bídě. Wolkerák then perfected it and demonstrated its architectural and aesthetic advantages.
Wolkerák has 12 sections with three apartments on each floor. The northern sections (1–5) are ten stories high, while the southern ones (6–12) are only nine stories. Due to the high demand from cooperatives during the design phase, the building was extended by one section. The length of the building is 180 meters, which is more than half shorter than Liberec's "Hokejka" (see the Ruprechtice housing estate). The Wolkerák project included garages, a boiler room, a laundry, a drying room, and a clubroom, which the architect placed beneath the spacious terraces in front of the building. In the back section on the slope, there was then a storage tank for heating oil.
The layout of the apartments (most commonly three-room and studios) was cleverly designed by the author so that the central space facing west includes a kitchen connected to the dining room and living room. On the opposite eastern side towards the slope, Vacek placed small bedrooms, with one originally planned to have a large window and pipe railing “for better ventilation of bedding.” The apartments on the top floor of Wolkerák (3+1 and 4+1) offered a spacious terrace and comfortable amenities, including a fireplace. The technical report succinctly characterizes them as “an attempt and a hint of a potentially high-quality way of living”.
Given the unique layout solutions of the apartments in Wolkerák and their atypical conical shape dictated by the segmented floor plan, the designers commissioned the interior furnishings from the leading professional institution of the time – the Institute of Housing and Clothing Culture in Prague (ÚBOK) and Emanuele Kittrichová.
Artistic Decoration
On the terrace in front of Wolkerák stood a granite sculpture titled Sundial by the Liberec sculptor Oldřich Novotný. The abstract sculpture on a high pedestal bore bronze Roman numerals, which were cast in shadow by the edge of one of the bent prisms. Today, we find no artistic decorations here; however, the preserved bronze plaque on the façade proudly bears the names of the building's authors: Karel Hubáček, Jaromír Vacek, and project supervisor Antonín Urban.
The Housing Estate Today
Wolkerák has been cherished by its residents in recent years. The terraces in front of the building have been newly modified, creating an interesting space with benches and flowerbeds. The wooded slope behind the building has also been cleaned and trimmed by the homeowners' association for better use. Repairs to the building itself largely respected the original details, including the balconies with shutters, although this was not without minor deviations and implementation issues. Overall, Wolkerák appears brighter and more monochrome after the façade renovation. Discussions are currently underway about adapting the spaces under the terrace for a kindergarten or a community center for the building's residents. There is even consideration of building a small garage building. The Liberec Wolkerák deserves the status of a cultural monument – it is a unique solitary example, a representation of the idealistic vision of architecture and housing of the 1960s, much like the grand projects of that time, such as Etarea or Domurbia, which, however, were never realized. Wolkerák suggests where the development of mass housing could lead in freer conditions.
The Story of the Housing Estate
The northern edge of Liberec still retains its original spa and excursion character. The attractiveness of the place was supported at the beginning of the 20th century by the excursion restaurant in the People's Gardens and a romantic knightly castle with a lookout tower on the Liberecká Highlands. Beneath it, the forest lodge Heinrich Liebieg, later the Wolker Tuberculosis Sanatorium, was simultaneously built. After World War II, the area was transformed by the construction of Wolkerák and the neighboring terraced houses along Na Čekané Street, also designed by Jaromír Vacek.
“The designers are utilizing one of the most beautiful and healthiest building sites in the urban district,” the Liberec newspapers wrote in 1966. The intention to build in the pleasant environment of a villa neighborhood emerged from the initiative of the then Stavoprojekt. The identified gap at the foot of the Jizera Mountains was meant to fill the gap in the construction of apartments caused by delayed preparation of the housing estate in Ruprechtice. For architect Vacek, who was supported by Karel Hubáček in his authority, this was an opportunity in the relaxed atmosphere of the second half of the 1960s to change the criticized form of mass housing. The successful realization of the largely exceptional Wolkerák was aided by the involvement of a demanding investor, the housing cooperative Nisa, and the architect's good relationships with the supplier – Liberec Construction Company.
The generous “light gray monoblock for 1500 happy residents” (Vpřed newspaper, 1967) differs at first glance from all post-war panel house productions due to its organic curvature and sophisticated architectural design. The impressive structure includes the plasticity of the continuous concrete loggias and the vertical stripes of shading slats. Vacek, like other architects of post-war Liberec, focused on the pronounced horizontality of the building, accentuated by the hilly terrain of the city. Wolkerák immediately reveals the author's inspiration from Swiss and Scandinavian architecture, both in terms of attention to the individual values of housing – quality layouts and comfortable amenities – and emphasis on the aesthetic qualities of the house and its connection to nature. All apartments offer a unique view of the city and the Ještěd ridge. This Liberec unique rightly earned several architectural awards and became one of the most published apartment buildings.
At the time when Jaromír Vacek (1925-68) embarked on the solitary project of Wolkerák, he already had successful designs for residential buildings for Liberec housing estates Na Bídě (1963-65) and Králův Háj behind him (see separate text). This native of Nymburk arrived at the Regional Project Institute in Liberec in 1952 after studying architecture at the Czech Technical University in Prague. His most progressive residential building projects (Wolkerák, Na Čekané, Na Bídě II) date from the second half of the 1960s when he worked in the Liberec Stavoprojekt under the leadership of Karel Hubáček in studio S12. Jaromír Vacek did not live to see the completion of Wolkerák or the neighboring terraced houses. In 1968, he worked briefly in the newly founded Sial, but he suddenly died during a study trip to Switzerland. Architect Bohuslav Lisal took over supervision of the construction of Wolkerák after him.
Sources
Archive of the Building Office Liberec.
State District Archive Liberec, City National Committee Fund, Detailed Urban Plan of Wolkerova, inv. no. 449, D32.
In Liberec, a sanatorium for housing, Vpřed VI, 1965, no. 6 (February 9), p. 1.
Ladislav Vepřek, Architectural Expressions, Vpřed VII, 1966, no. 23 (June 7), p. 3.
Ladislav Vepřek, More Beautiful than in Králův Háj, Průboj 1965, no. 4 (January 17), p. 4.
Ladislav Vepřek, More Beautiful than in Králův Háj, Vpřed VIII, 1967, no. 20 (May 16), p. 1.
The Most Beautiful Panel House, Vpřed VIII, 1967, no. 4 (October 10), p. 1.
(sb), Liberec received 870 apartments, Vpřed XII, 1971, no. 3 (January 12), p. 2.
Liberec – Březová Alej, Architecture of Czechoslovakia XXXI, 1972, no. 1, pp. 35-37.
20 years of work by the Regional Project Institute in Ústí nad Labem, Ústí nad Labem 1969.
Eva Novotná, Wolkerova Apartment Block, in: Rostislav Švácha (ed.), Sial: Liberec Association of Engineers and Architects, Prague 2012, pp. 56–59.
Rostislav Švácha (ed.), SIAL, Arbor vitae 2010.
Svatopluk Technik, Liberec Houses Speak II, Liberec 1993.
Svatopluk Technik, Liberec Past and Present, Liberec 1980.
Kateřina Tomanová, Monuments and Sculptures of Liberec, Czech Society in Liberec 1989.
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A vida!...
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03.03.17 07:55
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