Although architect Jan Mráček, a graduate of professor Otto Wagner’s architectural specialization at Vienna’s Academy of Fine Arts, settled in Brno in 1905 and lived here until his death in 1961, he left the city with just two larger architectural legacies: the apartment buildings at Antonínská 2 and Gorkého 51, built in 1906–1907 and 1913, respectively. His limited local contribution as an architect reflects the fact that, after 1907, he mainly worked for the Moravian authorities. The apartment building for the builder Karel Čupr Sr. (1849–1925), an example of Mráček’s early work, demonstrates his bold, purist liberation of the facade from the usual tectonic articulation. The result is one of Brno’s most modern buildings from the opening decade of the 20th century.
The five-storey building is located on the corner of Antonínská Street and Janáčkovo náměstí, with the entrance situated on the building’s shorter side. Both elevations end in shallow avant-corps, and a massive tower-like avant-corps on the corner is crowned with a faux battlement. The allusion to a fortified building is amplified by the use of stone cladding on the ground floor and part of the first floor. The only other facade decoration consists of subtle geometric panels around the windows in the shape of rectangles, hexagons and octagons. The result is a combination of two contrasting features: architecture that refers to historical fortresses but that also anticipates the design concepts of applied art, where the facades’ articulation resembles decorative coffering or boxes done in the style of geometric Art Nouveau.
In the 1960s, a half-floor was built into the loft space, which came to house an architectural design studio. During the building’s most recent renovation in 2023, a roof floor was added and the number of apartment units was more than doubled, from 21 to 52.
Aleš Filip