Plzeň is reconstructing the valuable Loos apartment, will offer a cultural space

Plzeň - Plzeň is reconstructing a historically valuable apartment designed by world-renowned architect Adolf Loos. The former apartment of Vilém Kraus at 10 Bendova Street will become a chamber cultural facility by next year. The project is estimated to cost 4.6 million crowns excluding VAT. The modifications, which began in July, are overseen by architect Ludvík Grym, who prepared the project documentation. The city has been striving for several years for the gradual revitalization of Loos's interiors, said the municipal spokesperson Zdeňka Kubalová to ČTK.
According to Karel Zoch from the heritage preservation department of the municipality, the apartment on Bendova Street primarily demonstrates Loos's characteristic interior elements. "Loos's signature is characterized by a maximum focus on a thoughtful internal layout, ensuring a good living experience for the family in the apartment, a rejection of artificial decorativeness, and its replacement with high-quality natural materials that are decorative in themselves, such as mahogany or Cipollino marble," he stated.
Most of these elements have been preserved in the apartment, especially in the main part, the living room, and dining room, as well as in the adjoining bedroom. "Here, through the preservation and necessary restoration of the original furnishings, a space for holding chamber and social events will be created. In the other areas, namely the study, room, hallway with the hall, bathroom, and kitchen, there will be facilities and an office," Kubalová said.
The city's aim is to maximize the preservation of authentic interior elements, craftsmen and restorers will repair the apartment based on the project documentation prepared by architects Ludvík Grym and Jan Sapák. The contract for the apartment's repair, including restoration work, was awarded to the company AVERS. "They won the tender in competition with six companies with the lowest bid of 4,615,754 crowns excluding VAT," the spokesperson stated. The estimated price was calculated at 5.42 million crowns.
The city has been working for several years on the gradual revitalization of Loos's interiors. According to Mayor Martin Baxa, Loos's work in Plzeň is valuable especially from a cultural-historical perspective and also has international significance.
The owner of the apartment, Vilém Kraus, managed to escape from the Nazis to England at the last moment in 1939, where he lived even after the war; however, his wife and children perished in extermination camps. The house was confiscated by the Germans, returned to Kraus in 1946, but was seized again in 1954. Plzeň acquired it from the state in 1994.
Adolf Loos received his first commission in Plzeň in 1907 and worked here with various interruptions until his death in 1933. In Plzeň, he executed the reconstruction of the so-called Brummel House at 58 Husova Street and thirteen other interiors. This collection is considered extremely valuable by experts even in the context of the entire European architecture of the 20th century.