The Smíchov villa of Adolf Loose will open to the public

Prague - The lesser-known villa of architect Adolf Loos in Prague will be opened to the public for a week by its owners. The Smíchov Winternitz villa, which is somewhat overshadowed by the Müller villa in Střešovice, will host an exhibition of twenty artists as well as several theater performances from Thursday until June 6. It will be open from 12:00 to 18:00.
    The exhibition continues from the event Hole Not Hole, which took place in 1999 in the then still devastated villa. Now, many past participants of the exhibition are also showcased in the completely reconstructed building. Among those exhibiting are Josef Abrhám, Pavel Berkovič, Michal Cimala, David Cysař, Roman Dietrich, René Dubovský, Dan Gregor, Jan Grimm, Denisa Grimmová Abrhámová, Jan Kaláb, Libor Pisklák, Tomáš Souček, and Jiří Thýn.
    The Smíchov villa bears the name of lawyer Josef Winternitz, who had it built. In the early 1930s, he purchased a building plot near Bertramka and chose Adolf Loos as the architect, who had just completed the Müller villa. Loos then worked on the design with Karel Lhota. According to Stanislav Cysař, the grandson of Josef Winternitz and one of the villa's owners, Loos was already ill at that time; he formulated the philosophy of the house, but Lhota constructed it. Loos applied the concept of the so-called Raumplan in his house, just as in the Müller villa.
    Some experts previously questioned Loos's authorship, as the villa was completed after Loos's death. "But we can certainly speak of it as Loos's villa; Lhota collaborated on it, just as he did on the Müller villa," said architecture historian Zdeněk Lukeš to ČTK.
    In 1943, the villa was confiscated by the Germans and subsequently sold to Prague. Winternitz died in a concentration camp. During the war, the city established a kindergarten in the villa, which lasted until 1997. In 1991, the Cysař family requested the villa through restitution and then litigated with the Prague 5 municipality for six years. The Cysařs respectfully reconstructed the villa and have been renting it out since 2002. According to Lukeš, they care for the villa in a way that certainly does not harm the building.
    Adolf Loos was greatly inspired by the work of American architect F. L. Wright, who dealt with the connection between architecture and lifestyle. Loos translated these ideas into the interiors of houses. His concept of interior arrangement differed significantly from the established construction forms. Raumplan consists of tiering the heights of individual rooms according to their function and symbolic significance. He himself said that he did not design any floor plans or facades, but rather spaces that must be arranged to be functional and economical.