The House of Gustav and Karla Vaváček
Like Vojtěch Kerhart with the Řezáč House, Oldřich Starý also made his house design for Baba commissioned by Gustav Vaváček as a kind of economical Czech variation on the new objectivity. The house is characterised by its axiality and symmetry; the layout is repeated on both floors. The third floor is topped by a large sundeck at the expense of the living area.
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
Gustav and Karla Vaváček
We know very little of Gustav Vaváček, who worked as a chief administrator for the Central Customs Office. He lived in the house with his wife Karla and three children.
