Original name
Fundación
Original use
Housing/block
Current use
Housing/block
Architects
Josef Chochol
Concrete by reinforcement
Concrete is a relatively brittle material that is strong in compression but less so in tension.
To increase its overall strength, steel rods, wires, mesh or cables may be embedded in concrete before it sets. This reinforcement, often known as rebar, resists tensile forces. By forming a strong bond, the two materials are able to resist a variety of applied forces, effectively acting as a single structural element .
Construction method
In this case, the concrete can be made by mixing the components directly on site, or it may be transported from a production plant in concrete-mixer trucks.
This method has the disadvantage of leaving the concrete exposed to the elements while it is setting. Whereas, with other methods, the environmental conditions can be controlled during setting, providing greater control over the outcome, with cast-in-place concrete a series of tests and protocols are necessary to verify its final strength.
Architectural concrete
- textured walls
- wooden formwork finish
- stamped concrete
- exposed aggregate concrete, colored concrete, etc.
Structural types
State of Conservation
Description
The buildings by Josef Chochol, characterized by their façades with faceted and triangulated geometries, have been referred to as “cubist architecture”. Although the term “cubist” is often used somewhat haphazardly in the context of architecture, alluding to authors and works from different periods, unrelated to the artistic movement from which the name is taken, in this case it corresponds to the activity of a small group of architects, considered to be members of the artistic movement called “Czech cubism”, a local expression of the artistic movement created by Pablo Picasso.
This small apartment building concentrates its innovations in the formal and constructive resolution of the façade: based on a reinterpretation of the elements of classical composition, it harnesses the structural and aesthetic qualities of reinforced concrete. The approach to the corner distills much of the building’s expressiveness. It resolves the access to the apartments, on the ground floor, and generates a terrace for the upper floors. The rest of the structure fits the typical bearing walls' distribution. Because it has two façades with different orientations, and due to the play of light and shadows that is accentuated by its unique geometry, the building takes on a changing and dynamic appearance throughout the day.
Although Chochol’s work is attentive and active in relation to artistic movements, it does not presage modernity in the distribution and structure of the interior spaces. However, his formal research into the composition of façades did help incorporate innovations into the local building tradition that tied it in with contemporaneity, before the architecture of the modern movement distanced itself from tradition and the vernacular.
Czech Republic
Neklanova 98/30
Hlavní město Praha [Prague] (Region) 128 00 Praha [Prague]
Commission
1913
Completion
1914