Apartment building of Ernst and Robert Hanak

Ernst and Robert Hannak’s corner apartment building was designed by architect and professor at the state German technical school in Brno, Maxmilian Johann Monter, and was constructed by the builder Adolf Bacher, who regularly collaborated with Monter. Built in 1908, it became a distinctive urban landmark on Kapucínské náměstí. The building’s construction was associated with the creation of Muzejní Street in an area that had previously been mostly built up. The demolition of the original structures opened up a view of the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul that met with a very positive response: ‘The demolition of the buildings at Capuchin Square 6 and 7 has presented a beautiful view of the renovated cathedral, the preservation of which seems to be very desirable from the perspective of giving the city a beautiful countenance’ (Gemeinde-Verwaltung und Gemeinde-Statistik der Landeshauptstadt Brünn, vol. 1907, p. 13). In his design for the new apartment building, Monter placed the greatest emphasis on its context within the urban fabric. In his plans, the most prominent view was from the east, meaning from below where Masarykova Street meets Kapucínské náměstí, and the newly created view of the cathedral was preserved. Monter’s apartment building is remarkable for the extraordinary sensibility with which it has been incorporated into the square, with its rounded corner framing the silhouette of the cathedral rising in the background. His plans and photographs of the new building were published in the prestigious Viennese journal Der Architekt, which praised the quality of its architectural form and its positive contribution to the city’s appearance. It was also commended in a biographical article devoted to Monter’s work in the Brno daily Tagesbote. The five-storey building has two street elevations of unequal length that come together in rounded tower-like corner topped by a conical roof with a finial. The triple-bay elevation facing Kapucínské náměstí is decorated with a rounded oriel, which originally had an open (wooden) loggia above it on the building’s top floor. A characteristic feature of Monter’s work is the use of windows of various widths and shapes; on this building, they are rectangular or arched and framed by profiled chambranles. The fanlights on the oriel were originally divided into smaller squares, but this feature has not survived. Above the oriel and the loggia, the central window bay culminates in a small gable roof with a three-part dormer window. The four-bay elevation along Muzejní Street is accentuated by a central oriel containing a staircase. The oriel’s right-most window bay, which has one less storey, is crowned by a turret tucked into its bevelled corner. The main entrance is from Muzejní Street. The double-flight staircase features an Art Nouveau wrought-iron railing. On the ground floor, the original shop windows and the entrance to the commercial premises on Kapucínské náměstí have been preserved, and the space is currently home to a cafe. The extraordinarily valuable facade is notable for the distinctive and balanced way in which its various elements have been structured and arranged, the dynamism added by the rounded corner, and the harmonious effect of the building as a whole. The architectural design follows a contemporary tendency that significantly simplified and geometricized historicist forms while paring back the stucco decoration. Ornamentation has been almost completely muted, with the facade utilizing just the visual effect of rough versus smooth plaster, thus giving the building an understated modern character. At the same time, however, Monter’s work is also characterized by quaint Romanticist elements such as articulated roofs with turret-like structures, windows of various shapes, gables, oriels and wooden loggias. In its form, the building at Kapucínské náměstí 7 closely resembles other Brno projects by Monter, in particular the group of apartment buildings (1909–1911, B012) he designed for Adolf Bacher and Karel Pětník at Masarykova 6, Průchodní 1–2, Radnická 11 and Zelný trh 19–20 (B012), where we find a similar arrangement of volumes and architectural details and the same emphasis on the urban context. Pavla Cenková