C089

APARTMENT BUILDING WITH SHOPS 1936 - 1937

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Although several designs for department stores by Vilém Kuba have been preserved, only one was ever built: an apartment building overlooking Česká and Veselá streets with a ground floor that is still used for commercial purposes. The symmetrically conceived front of the building is vertically divided by three polygonal alcoves emphasized by contrasting white and black opaxite cladding. Although the design of the facade makes this project unique in Kuba's body of work, the building pales in comparison with his other (unbuilt) plans for the centre of Brno. Such were also the designs of an apartment building in Skrytá Street or the Nehera department store inspired by the Prague avant-garde architectural environment with reference to bustling big-city boulevards awash with neon lights, modern cars and stylish pedestrians.