Antonín Mendl - a modernist among historians, a historian among modernists

Significant, yet still somewhat overlooked architect Antonín Mendl was born on August 31, 1890, in Ždánice, Moravia, and died on December 26, 1944, in Prague, so this year during the Christmas holidays we remember 70 years since the death of this architect.
After graduating from the technical school in Bučovice, he studied at the Czech Technical University, today's CTU, from 1910 to 1915. He passed his second state exam on May 29, 1920, and after a brief stint in the office of Josef Záruba-Pfeffermann, he started working in 1920 as an assistant to Josef Fanty at CTU and took over the leadership of the II. Department of Gothic Architecture in 1924. He was appointed an extraordinary professor in 1927 and a regular professor in 1931. Four years later, he took charge of the Institute of Modern Architecture.
From the many students who passed through his training, we can name Karel Hannauer, Josef Hrubý, Magda Jansová, Karel Janů, Vladimír Karfík, Jarmila Kasalická, Jaroslav Otruba, Oldřich Stibor, Břetislav Štorm, Jiří Štursa, Stanislav Tošovský, and Jiří Voženílek. At a more conservatively oriented school, he was one of the promoters of modern architecture and was very popular among students.
Mendl made a significant mark on Czech, or rather Czechoslovak interwar architectural creation. His first significant realization, the Research Institute of Sugar Production in Prague - Střešovice, was designed in 1920 while still with Josef Záruba-Pfeffermann. Later, he had a joint office with Václav Šantrůček, with whom he collaborated in the first half of the 1920s. A primary building from that time is undoubtedly Tyl's House in Polička (1921 – 1929), where we can see influences of traditionalism, but also combined with decorativism and japonizing motifs. The family house from 1923 in Lopatecká Street in Prague - Podolí is characterized by late cubist shape. Mendl and Šantrůček also designed several sokolovnas, the first, built between 1921 and 1923, is located in Pardubice. The design for the sokolovna in his native Ždánice from 1922 was realized in 1923 – 1924 in Křivoklát.
The purist residential building from 1926 on Generála Píky Street in Prague Dejvice has very impressive rounded corner balconies. Mendl also designed a sacred building, the Church of St. Martin, St. Cyril, and St. Methodius, which stands in Násedlovice (1927 – 1928). In the second half of the 1920s, villas were built in Prague - Střešovice for František Navrátil on Pevnostní Street (1927 – 1928), for JUDr. Ladislav Feierabend on Slunná Street (1927), and a villa for Karel Moravec (1928 – 1929) there as well. In an exceptionally interesting and prominent location, he built a villa for Adolf Hlaváček in Nosislav in 1929. At the end of the 1920s, Mendl designed a multipurpose building Živena in Zvolen, built from 1928 to 1929, and a school in Ždánice (1928 – 1930).
From the 1930s, Mendl transitioned to purely functionalist architecture, replacing pitched and tent roofs with flat roofs. Most of the villas from that time were again built in Dejvice and Střešovice. The house on Fetrovská Street was built for Otakar Fischer between 1931 and 1932, and the house on Na Fišerce Street for Antonín Šoupa (1932). The family duplex on Na Dračkách Street dates from the same year. The school in the village of Krásné near Polička, consisting of several volumes, was built between 1932 and 1933. Other functionalist villas arose in Dejvice on Na Pahoubce Street (1933) and Na Míčánce Street (1934 – 1935). The villa in Kosová Hora from 1935, intended for the orientalist and priest Alois Musil (1868 – 1944), represents a departure from functionalist shapes; here, a higher volume with a pitched roof adjoins a lower volume with a vertically oriented pitched roof. Mendl attended the Oriental Seminar at Charles University from 1923 to 1924, and later both men enjoyed a warm friendship.
Late influences of Dutch architecture are revealed in the family house on České družiny Street, built between 1935 and 1936 for the professor of civil engineering Rudolf Kukač. The commercial and residential building on Vodní Street in Kroměříž from 1936 also appears more puristic than functionalist.
Mendl also developed several designs for tombstones and memorials, some of which were realized. The tombstone of Cyril Dušek from 1924 can be found in Prague's Olšany, and the cemetery cross commissioned by A. Musil is located in Rychtářov (1927). Among urban planning designs, we must mention the regulatory plan for Zvolen from 1923 and the plan for Turčanské Sv. Martin from 1926 to 1927.
From many unrealized projects, we can cite participation in the competition for a primary and secondary school in Meziříčí from 1922, a design for a building for the Supreme Administrative Court and the central administration of state mines and foundries in Prague's Smíchov (1924), or a design for the National House in Banská Bystrica from 1925. From 1934 to 1936, he worked on the study of the Czechoslovak Academy in Rome. Mendl received the first prize for his design of the Prague City Gallery at Klárov from 1937.
The entire work of Antonín Mendl, which evolved from late cubism through decorativism to purism and functionalism, was characterized by a very cultivated expression, not seeking originality at all costs, but confirming the premise that modern architecture arises as a continuation of the "old" and not in fundamental opposition to past epochs.

Literature:
Líbal, P.: Antonín Mendl – modernista mezi historiky, historik mezi modernisty, in: Časopis Společnosti prátel starožitností 1/122, Praha 2014, s. 38 – 52.
Lukeš, Z.: Antonín Mendl. Architekt 26, Praha 1984, s. 7.