The anniversary of the birth of architect Loos will be commemorated in Pilsen with two exhibitions

Plzeň - Two large-scale exhibitions in the space U Branky and in the courtyard of the town hall will commemorate the 150th anniversary of the birth of architect Adolf Loos in Plzeň. This year has been officially declared the Year of Adolf Loos, and several of his valuable residential projects have also been preserved in Plzeň. The photography exhibitions starting from October 3 will specifically recall the architect's activities in the city. The city hall informed ČTK of this today in a press release.

At the exhibition U Branky in Smetanovy Sady, visitors will see what Loos's Plzeň apartments looked like shortly after completion. The architect had the finished interiors photographed and stored the images in his archive. After his death in 1933, his students took over the archive. "During World War II, the archive was stored in the Royal Institute of British Architects in London. After the war, it was donated to the Vienna gallery Albertina, and from there we borrowed the photographs," said Karel Zoch, the author of the exhibitions and head of the town hall's heritage protection department.

At U Branky, original construction drawings for Loos's projects, preserved in the archive of the Plzeň city hall, will also be on display. "We had access to what Loos submitted to the then building authority for approval. Some drawings are even presented as perspective visualizations," Zoch described. The exhibition will run until October 30.

The second exhibition in the courtyard of the town hall will illustrate what happened to Loos's spaces after they were abandoned by their original Jewish residents. "We want to show people how the apartments were treated during the Nazi occupation and during socialism and what they look like today," Zoch said. For example, the Semler house at Klatovská 110 partly served as a photo studio and even as a classroom for the medical faculty before that. It contained dental chairs, and students learned to drill teeth on mannequins. The exhibition will also feature a digital model of the Kraus apartment. "It has survived as a shell, but we have had the missing parts modeled. We want to create digital models of other Loos's residential projects in Plzeň," Zoch added. The exhibition will last until October 22. In addition, three smaller exhibitions will take place directly in Loos's interiors and a photography exhibition at the headquarters of the National Heritage Institute in Prešovská Street.

Adolf Loos was born on December 10, 1870, in Brno. He is considered one of the founders of modern architecture and a leading figure in architectural purism. He regarded ornamentation as a sign of primitivism, while objectivity and functionality were seen as signs of cultural maturity. Today, he is globally recognized, with his works preserved not only in Plzeň and Prague but also primarily in Vienna, as well as in Paris, Montreux, and elsewhere in Europe.