The House of František Heřman
Originally, a smaller family house by Oldřich Starý was designed in the spirit of a symmetrical layout similar to the aesthetics of the architect J. E. Koula. The simple staircase connects all the floors, including the roof, which has a sundeck with a typically nautical railing. The extension of the house also created space for a terrace connected with the bedroom balcony.
Architect
Oldřich Starý
(*1884 Praha +1971 Praha)
A pioneer of Czech functionalism, architect, theoretician, and teacher; he is one of the most prominent figures in Czech modern architecture of the interwar period, with its principles of “new architecture,” purity, truthfulness of form, and the belief that architecture is not an art but a “scientifically-based cultural task.” He soon became a harsh critic of excessive façade decoration. Bearing in mind Le Corbusier’s view of the house as a “machine for living,” he designed four houses in Baba (Heřman, Bouda, Vaváček, and Sutnar). He is the author of the palace building on Národní třída in Prague, which he designed for the Czechoslovak Werkbund in 1936, and he was also the Werkbund’s president from 1935. He also presided over the Architects’ Club and was the editor of the functionalist “Stavba” Magazine. He was a professor and later the rector of CTU in Prague.
1903-1909
studied architecture with Professors Josef Schulz and Jan Evangelista Koula at CTU in Prague
1912-1919
professor at the State Technical School in Pilsen
1913
founding member of the Architects’ Club
1920-1945
professor at the State Technical School in Prague
1920-1948
President of the Architects’ Club
1922-1939
editor-in-chief of the “Stavba” Magazine
1939-1971
editor-in-chief of the “Architektura” Magazine
1945-1970
professor of architecture at CTU in Prague
1948
Rector of CTU
Significant Works
1928
house at the Exhibition of Contemporary Culture in Czechoslovakia, Brno
1929-1932
villas in Prague-Dejvice 1934-36
1932
houses of Iška and Ladislav Sutnar, František Heřman, Cyril Bouda and Karla and Gustav Vaváček, Baba, Prague-Dejvice
1934-1936
House of Art Industry on Národní třída in Prague (in cooperation with František Zelenka)
1935
villa in Prague-Braník
Owner
František Heřman
František Heřman, Colonel of the General Staff of Czechoslovakia, sold his house soon after its completion in 1933 for CZK 200,000 to a bank clerk, Josef Dvořáček, and his son František Dvořáček, a professor of the First Czechoslovak State Grammar School in Prague XII.
