In the 1960s, the government decreed that housing development was to focus primarily on the construction of large residential complexes. At that time, the housing shortage in Czechoslovakia was severe and there was little support from the project design institutes for family houses and smaller residential developments. Even so, a number of buildings were built in Brno that were the result of interesting and inventive approaches, as architects attempted to find the ideal forms for new types of building.
The housing construction cooperative of Stavoprojekt Brno employees had new apartment blocks built in Neumannova street, on the slope overlooking the district of Pisárky, between 1962 (nos. 56, 54 and 48, 46) and 1965 (nos. 50, 52), based on a project drawn up by the architect Arnošt Krejza. The three four-floor adjoined blocks with cellars were placed very discreetly in a residential area of villas and, along with the surrounding buildings, form a relatively harmonious whole. The buildings are rectangular-shaped with a flat roof and a distinctive southern facade, which is segmented by a symmetrical grid of loggias. They comprise twenty housing units, with three two-bedroom flats on each floor. They were constructed using brick block panels of the T02B - OS construction system. These were lighter and more variable, when compared to conventional concrete panels, and were an intermediate stage in the development between traditional brick and prefabricated panel construction.
In 2010, two of the buildings had their exterior surfaces clad with thermal insulation and their windows replaced. This renovation did not detract from the individuality of the residential whole, as the colour for the new façade was chosen wisely. The revitalization of the building consisting of the adjoined blocks numbered 46 and 48, only entailed its wooden windows being replaced with plastic versions, and the original roughcast plaster facade with its pleasant earthy tones of beige, grey and deep red remains to this day.
LH
