The inconspicuous apartment building on Drobného Street (originally Parkstrasse) sits amidst a row of town houses on the eastern edge of Lužánky Park immediate next to the Löw-Beer Villa. The four-storey house, built in 1907 with several rental apartments in what at the time was a high-income Brno neighbourhood on a newly laid-out street, is the work of the architect František Falkovský. Falkovský, an independent builder active in Brno since 1897, had previously built several distinctive apartment buildings on Zahradnická (1899–1903, nos. 4, 7, 9 and 11) and Vlhká Streets (1905, no. 20) that clearly reflected his stylistic shift from historicism towards Art Nouveau. The house on Drobného was thus the work of an experienced builder who fully employed the principles and forms of the newly established Art Nouveau style. The narrow asymmetrical facade has four window bays, with a different window arrangement on the third floor adding a sense of dynamism to the overall composition. The main entrance is defined by a simple horizontal lintel, and above it the top floor is accentuated by an Art Nouveau dormer gable that spans almost half of the total width of the building. The left part of the facade, topped by a cornice resting on small corbels, is distinguished by a single-bay avant-corps with an open balcony on top. The facade is segmented by the use of alternating smooth and textured plaster, complemented on the second and third floors by banded rustication and smooth stucco. The facade’s horizontal articulation derives from the different decorative elements on the apron walls and window frames, where we find delicate floral and geometric ornaments. By comparison, the four-storey rear elevation (with balconies) is covered in smooth plaster. The building underwent a complete renovation in 2015, during which its historically valuable facade and several interior architectural elements were sensitively restored, including the original ceramic tiles and the staircase with a lattice railing decorated with an Art Nouveau vegetal pattern.
Šárka Bahounková