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Theatre hall in the building of the Women’s Homes

Josef Hlaváček

alias Akcent Theatre
history of the theatresupplementtechnical dataHistoric equipment

Important events

(detail)1933 | construction

People

(detail)Josef Hlaváček |main architect
An engineer, architect and painter in Prague district Střešovice. An absolvent of the Czech Technical University in Prague worked with Vlastimil Lada and  Karel Honzík. An author of an array of functionalist rental houses, villas, school buildings, was engaged in a building type of a hostel and lodging house.

History

A functionalist hostel from architects Vlastimil Lada and Josef  Hlaváček from 1935-1936.

 

The Women’s Homes is the name of a building in Prague 5, Smíchov that was built in the 1930s as a lodging facility for employed unmarried women. Since 2002, the building has been privately owned and serves after reconstruction as a multifunctional facility that incorporates office and commercial rooms, restaurant and hotel apart from lodging.

The seven storey building on the layout of “H” shape was erected in 1933 in the functionalist style to the design by architect  Josef Hlaváček in the location of a former gasworks in Smíchov. The building came to existence due to the incentive of the  “Committee for Improvement of Housing Conditions of Young Women”  under the auspices of Alice Masaryková who ceremonially opened the building in 1933. The Women’s Homes were meant to serve as an example of solution for housing conditions of the young, unmarried, employed women and especially those out of Prague. The building with a ferro-concrete skeleton contained altogether 900 rooms, there were three halls as well: theatre, gym and projection room with a restaurant apart of the rooms.

Germans established a military hospital here during the Second World War. The original inhabitants returned here after the war. The building was under the administration of the District National Committee and gained the status of “ lodging facility of non-public type”. The maintenance of the building was neglected during the period of 1950–1990 and it dilapidated. A partial modification of the layout of the original common area was carried out in the 1970s. A general repair of the external casing was implemented in the 1980s, which had not respected the original color and material arrangement of the facades. The Women’s Homes were gradually transferred under management of the Municipal District of Prague 5 after 1989. It lent the building to a private firm in 1994, which bought it in 2002 and carried out a general overhaul in several stages. The original theatre that used to be located in the underground area has not been preserved. These rooms serve to a casino today.

 

Literature: http://www.zenskedomovy.cz/

http://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%BDensk%C3%A9_domovy

Dalibor Prix (ed.), Umělecké památky Prahy. Velká Praha M/Z. Academia. Praha 2014.

Pavel Vlček (ed.), Encyklopedie architektů, stavitelů, zedníků a kameníků v Čechách. Academia. Praha 2004, s. 237.

 

 

Author: Markéta Svobodová

Translator: Jan Purkert

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