When the innovative idea meets the reality

Villa Palička was designed by the Dutch architect Mart Stam, who was a left-oriented

avant-garde artist. He also designed furniture and was an urban planner during the Soviet era in Magnitogorsk and other Russian cities. Mr. Palička, the owner of the villa, was a civil engineer, so he adjusted the original plan of villa by Mart Stam. As was mentioned above, Stam was avant-garde architect, he co-worked with Russian artist El Lissitzky and together they designed new type of the skyscraper called Cloud Iron. 

The Cloud iron

Villa Palička

Main features

Mart Stam believed as the other functionalism architects that building should be developed in time, and that is the disadvantage of Palička villa. It has never been evolved, there were no later extensions. But some of the best ideas stayed according to the plan of Mart Stam. The first feature are the supporting frames, which are the load bearing construction of the villa. There is also not so typical terrace in the first floor that is like the connector between interior and garden. Third important element is the window over the corner connected with the glass wall that leads to the terrace.

These important features I would like to re-interpret for my concept of pavilion in the Baba colony. 

The pavilion

Main features

Loadbearing system and the matter

We created two models of the villa, were we tried to symbolize the supporting frame construction from skewers and the mass from the polystyrene.

Model of the matter

Model of loadbearing construction

Shadow of the model

The entrance

The villa as all the buildings of the colony of Baba is settled on the hillside so the entrance is on the first floor. It is not as opulent as for example the entrance of Gočár’s Kytlica house. It consist only of quite small doors with the shelter above. At the front façade there are also windows to the first floor and the basement, but the façade make impression as a plain space. 

Model of the entrance

Drawing of the entrance

Interior

When we visited the villa we were quite surprised how small, confined and dark the main space is. Itwas also affected by the bad weather and shut down jalousies.

Hall

Stairs to the second floor

Window over the corner

The terrace

 Views

The strange thing about the windows in the villa is that there is one main window (the window over the corner) and the remaining windows are quite uninspired and they look like normal cottage windows. The view from the living room is designed to the Prague and also to the terrace, which should be according to my opinion the celebration of Mart Stam to his house design.

In the house of Mart Stam that is his earlier project, we can find the same windows as are used in the villa Palička. Other features that are quite similar in villa Palička and villas in Stuttgart are the shelter upon the entrance and the glass window along the terrace. 

Triple house in Stuttgart (1927)

But we can find the typical shapes of windows as in the ordinary functionalistic villas. For example the horizontal window in the hall next to the entrance and the whole glass wall in the living room. That are the typical features of the villa Savoy by Le Corbusier. There is also the view to the terrace and the qualities of the building.  

View in the villa Savoy (1928 - 31)

Horizontal window in villa Savoy (on the left side)

Here is one example of using the window over the corner in modern building. 

Miguel Barahona - The House On The Hill (2010)

Served and serving spaces

We can see that the served spaces are oriented to the south side because of the astonishing view from the big windows in the second floor. 

The spatial organization

According to the method by Professor Pierre von Meisse I examined the spatial organisation of the main space on the first floor. 

I would like to thank to my co-worker Jan Chaloupek, who created the analysis of the villa with me.

Sources

Drawings are made and photographed by myself.

Triple house in Stuttgart

Villa Savoy 1

Villa Savoy 2

Miguel Barahona - The House On The Hill

The Cloud iron