The apartment building of the Brno builder Franz Pawlu, who also lived in one of the units, is one of Brno’s most valuable architectural monuments from the period after 1900. Featuring an essentially standardized layout, the building stands out for what is perhaps the most radical Art Nouveau facade in town, with a striking colour scheme and complex vegetal décor.
Much like Pawlu’s other buildings in Brno from this period, the basic composition of the facade, including its decorative details, was inspired by Otto Wagner’s apartment buildings on Vienna’s Linke Wienzeile (1898–1899), in particular his Majolikahaus at Linke Wienzeile 40. A very similar design with a regular grid of windows, pilaster strips and a continuous metal balcony can be found on the facade of Wagner’s apartment building at Vienna’s Universitätsstraße 12.
The five-storey town house with an extra half-floor in the attic has a six-bay main elevation, with each window axis framed by prominent pilaster strips. Its basic geometric structure consists of a regular grid of 24 rectangular windows, with a rich high-relief floral décor in the areas between the windows: bundles of vertical stems with decoratively meandering upper parts, delicate leaves and striking white iris flowers, the latter of which are also found under the windows on the top floor. Alongside the lily, tulip, water lily and poppy, the iris was one of Art Nouveau’s most popular floral decorations, probably due to the shape of its flowers, which could be spread out on a surface.
The ground floor is separated from the upper floors by a metal balcony running the width of the building that, combined with a strongly protruding cordon ledge, forms a clear horizontal line on an otherwise vertically arranged facade. The balcony sits atop floral metal consoles, and the decorative curves of the stylized floral décor are repeated on each field of the interlaced railing. The street front is crowned by a strongly protruding cornice held up by small golden consoles. The soffit is decorated with colourful bands of geometric red rosettes and green leaves inspired by Wagnerian motifs. The building’s corners are topped by two Neo-Classical statues of geniuses with sweeping celebratory gestures. These figures emphasize the triumphal character of the building, itself an apotheosis of the Art Nouveau style.
The architect Dušan Jurkovič lived and worked in the building in 1903–1906 before moving into his own villa in Žabovřesky (B086).
The listed building was sensitively renovated in 2009. The original colour of the Art Nouveau stucco décor has been restored as well. The bistro on the ground floor, whose interior was designed by the architect Martin Hrdina, is named after the builder Franz Pawlu.
Pavla Cenková
