Plzeň has restored another of the First Republic Loos interiors

Plzeň - Plzeň has restored another of the valued interwar interiors of municipal apartments designed by the world-renowned architect Adolf Loos. The former apartment of Vilém Kraus at Bendova Street 10, built between 1930 and 1931, will be used for hosting chamber and social events and will also be part of the tour route of Loos's interiors that the city is preparing. Plzeň has been working on the gradual revitalization of valuable interiors for several years, and in April, the interior of the building at Klatovská 12 was presented.
    Loos was an architectural genius, a person of international renown, said Mayor Martin Baxa (ODS) today to ČTK. "We were fortunate that he realized a number of apartments in our city for several decades. Many apartments have disappeared, but some have been preserved. One of those real treasures, the apartment at Bendova Street 10, is now opening," he stated. The public will be able to visit the apartment for the first time on October 28 during the city-wide celebrations of the founding of the republic. The cost of renovating the apartment was 7.2 million crowns, and the city allocated an additional 800,000 crowns for modifying part of the building's shared spaces.
    The apartment is among the most attractive Loos creations - it features rare marble linings, opposing mirrored walls, and comfortably designed fitted furniture. It is also a typical example of Loos's handwriting, which emphasizes a well-thought-out internal layout and the rejection of artificial ornamentation and decorativeness, said Karel Zoch from the monument preservation department of the municipal office. However, Loos replaced artificial decorations with attractive natural materials like marble and wood.
    "When we started renovating, we were enchanted even in its devastated state. During the repair, we found things that surprised us, which may not appear in other Loos creations," Zoch said. For example, the apartment contained distinctly green windows that are not found in other Loos apartments. Fragments of historical wallpaper were also discovered, allowing the interior to be reconstructed. A big surprise was the ingenious hiding of a safe within the wooden paneling. Even though the preservationists had keys to it, they were unable to find it for several years.
    The owner of the apartment, Vilém Kraus, managed to escape just in time in 1939 from the Nazis to England, but his wife and children perished in extermination camps. The Germans confiscated the house, and after the war, it was returned to Kraus; however, the Communists subsequently seized it again. Plzeň acquired it from the state in 1994.
    Loos received his first commission in Plzeň in 1907 and worked there, with various breaks, until his death in 1933. He carried out the reconstruction of the Brummel House on Husova Street and completed 13 other apartment interiors. Although not all of them have survived, experts consider this an immensely valuable collection in the context of 20th-century European architecture.