This Art Nouveau villa on Cupákova Street, built in 1911–1912 for the actress Vlasta Müllerová, is the work of the lesser-known architect Emil Straka, who later married Müllerová. Construction was realized by the builder Antonín Cupák, whose original family house stands nearby on the same street. The spacious two-storey residential house was designed in the spirit of modernist traditionalism, complemented by distinctive decorative elements inspired by Moravian folk architecture, the author of which was probably the prominent Brno architect and Straka’s friend Dušan Jurkovič.
The house was originally built outside the city of Brno for recreational purposes. It was remodelled and given its current permanent residential form by Emil Straka in the 1930s, when, in accordance with current trends of the time, it was expanded on the south-west side by a single-storey addition with a roof terrace in the spirit of functionalism. The garden was expanded at the same time, including the construction of a gazebo that, as a result of the property’s later subdivision, is now located in the neighbouring garden south of the villa.
A number of original elements have been preserved in the interior of the older Art Nouveau part of the villa, including the carved beams, stairs, beam ceiling, wooden wall panelling, shutters, doors, a tiled stove, and original Art Nouveau furniture. Thanks to recent sensitive renovations, good maintenance and monument protection (which it enjoyed until recently), the building, including part of its interior, has been preserved in a very good state. It is a unique example of rural traditionalist Art Nouveau architecture.
Šárka Bahounková
