design odyssey beyond 2010

[Katerina Kyselica] Buildings and objects designed by the late Jan Kaplicky are anything but standard – organic, futuristic, audacious, visionary, and radical are terms often applied to his work. Unwilling to compromise his unorthodox vision of the living environment, most of his designs were never built. For a few lucky ones however, living in Kaplicky’s flounder-shaped villa, where you will never bump your hip against a sharp corner, could become a sweet reality. 

Awarded by Brits, resented by Czechs, the Czech-born, London-based master of fluid architecture didn’t have it easy before his death in Prague last year.  With the British Stirling Prize for the Lord’s Cricket Ground Media Centerthe new Czech national library in Prague (2007), (1999) in his pocket and a winning design for he thought he could find his way back to his homeland after more than thirty years of British exile. He dreamed of contributing to Czech modern architecture. He ran, however, into a wall – a wall of misunderstanding, narrow-mindedness and resentment by Czech politicians, even some fellow architects, and the public. Whether his ‘octopus’, as the Czechs nicknamed his design for the library, will end up in the park overlooking the melodramatic skyline of Prague, is not clear. Fortunately, for the sake of Czech and world architecture, a couple of buildings designed by Kaplicky before he died will be erected in his homeland – the Antonin Dvorak Music and Concert Hall, shaped as a stingray in the city of Ceske Budejovice, and a villa in the pristine neighborhood of the Bohemian castle Konopiste. 

  

 

 

 

 The ‘Konopiste Resort’ – a boutique-like development of contemporary homes by established Czech and Slovak architects will have not one but two designs by Jan Kaplicky. One is the clubhouse Volavka with a bright blue roof reminiscent of a beret with a chimney rotating in the wind. The other one is a villa, a private home for those who dare to dream. With all of the living space on one floor, the 4,500 square-foot, four bedroom, four bath dwelling – reminiscent of a flounder – seems to be floating among the greenery of a 31,000 square-foot garden. 

 

 

Set on a sloped site, a sleek, curving ramp bridges the surrounding land directly with the first floor – the main living space. The ground floor houses a two-car garage and a circular staircase that connects all the way to the roof. It might remind you of the Corbusier’s concept for Villa Savoye with the idea of integrating the garage into the dwelling. The roof, accessed from the main floor through the circular staircase enclosed in a tube, is conceived as a green roof surrounding a ‘natural solarium’ – a terrace positioned so that it gets the most of the sun. 

Although Jan disliked the word ‘technology’, his creativity continued to be influenced by innovative transport design – cars, aeroplanes, boats and spacecraft. He loved the detail of the Czech Jawa motorcycle headlight housing molded together with the front fork (1946) and the form of the Tatraplan car (1947)…The monocoque skin, a frameless structural shell construction, and its transfer into architecture developed into Future Systems’ central passion.” explains Czech architect and design writer Ivan Margolius in Architectural Design magazine (July/August 2009). 

Kaplicky believed that it is the design of residential dwellings that showcases the skills of an architect. He said that “it is an art to fully understand the needs of others and create an environment that makes people feel good while [still] being an interesting architectural object”. ‘Balance and harmony’ were the key words used by Kaplicky to describe his design for the villa. 

 

 

The Director of Resort Living Martina Hollasova emphasizes the importance of finding the right client for Kaplicky’s house. If you’re up to the challenge of living in this unprecedented dwelling, you should expect more than just a sales transaction. Money alone will not get you this jewel of Czech contemporary architecture. 

I want to avoid speculation, I will be careful. I want the owner to live in the villa, none of the homes here in the Resort Konopiste should be empty. We offer them to people who appreciate the quality living.”, states Hollasova. 

And although there have been Czechs interested in the purchase, Hollasova takes her time. That’s why she invited Sotheby’s London as a consultant to help Resort Living find the right buyer. 

It is true that Kaplicky has another dwelling designed in the Czech Republic. It is a small single family home he designed prior to his emigration in 1968 for the Dvoraks, a family of artists in Prague. Seeing it now though, it’s hard to believe the same person designed this ‘box’ and the other buildings and objects in the Kaplicky portfolio. Functional, yet rectangular and sharp – completely in line with the tradition of 1920-30s Czech functionalism. We should thank the exile that allowed Kaplicky to disconnect with the Czech environment and tradition, sprout wings and find his own, unique way of seeing our world – that allowed Kaplicky to become Kaplicky, “one of a handful of brilliant architects and a true innovator”, as Richard Rogers described him. 

 

 

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Katerina Kyselica practices interior architecture, travels, writes, photographs and creates. Retired from Czech legal practice, she landed in the US, and later found her way to New York City. She prefers listening to her surroundings to clogging her ears with headphones. She sees good design as smart, sustainable, perceptive and thoroughly thought through.

Filed under: Architecture, Prague Tagged: | Architecture, Czech, Modern housing, Prague