The gallery is striving for a valuable apartment designed by Adolf Loos

Plzeň - In the largest interior in Plzeň, to which the famous architect Adolf Loos contributed, a research center for architectural research could be established. The West Bohemian Gallery is pursuing the valuable multi-storey apartment at Klatovská street 110, which, with its design, resembles the famous Müller Villa in Prague. In addition to the center, they want to have an exhibition recalling Loos, an architect of global significance. The city of Plzeň, as the owner of the property, is currently negotiating the project with the Plzeň Region, the founder of the gallery, ČTK has found out.
    "We would like to take the property into our management. It is already common in the Czech Republic for galleries to take similar types of properties under their wing. For example, the Moravian Gallery in Brno manages Jurkovič's villa, and the Karlovy Vary Art Gallery manages Becher's villa," said Roman Musil, director of the West Bohemian Gallery, to ČTK.
    The West Bohemian Gallery's effort is to restore the most valuable spaces of the apartment from the 1930s to a condition close to the original and make them accessible to the public. In other spaces, they would like to prepare a smaller area for a permanent exhibition about Loos's work. An important part would then be a research center dealing with 19th and 20th century architecture, including contemporary architecture, not only in relation to Plzeň but also to the entire Plzeň Region.
    According to Petr Domanický, who is responsible for the architecture collection at the West Bohemian Gallery, the interior at Klatovská 110 is classified among Loos's works. "However, it is questionable. Loos was at the beginning of the discussion about the design of the apartment. But then he became ill and did not participate in it, and his colleague Heinrich Kulka took over. He completed the realization," Domanický stated. Thus, the overall concept is from Loos, while the details were created at Kulka's suggestion.
     The interior is among the largest in Plzeň that Loos contributed to. The apartment has three floors, and its overall design resembles the Müller Villa, having a similar layout. "There is a two-storey hall and further floors for bedrooms, where there were rooms for the children and parents, for staff. The apartment was divided into several parts after the war; the main hall was completely separated and converted into a non-residential space. Other parts were divided into smaller apartments," Domanický stated. Many original elements have been preserved, such as marbling, wooden paneling, handles, and so on. Today, a significant part of the apartment is vacant and belongs to the city. The city has now offered the region a free transfer of the property.
    According to Musil, they are looking for ways to fund the reconstruction, which is estimated to cost about 50 million crowns. "There is talk that Norwegian funds could be used, for which this type of project would be ideal," Musil added.
    The original owners of the apartment, Oskar and Jana Semler, emigrated to Australia in 1939, their house passed to the German Reich in 1942, then to the Czech state. They applied for the return of their property, but since they did so only after February 1948, restitution did not occur.
    The West Bohemian Gallery is the only institution in the Plzeň Region dedicated to architecture. It established its architecture collection two years ago.