Hipsight

‘The Main Entrance’

Slovak University of Agriculture
Architects: Vladimír Dedeček and Rudolf Miňovský
Designed: 1956-1960
Built: 1961-1966
Location: Nitra, Slovakia

The agricultural university complex is regarded as one of the best architectural works of the era in Slovakia. Construction of the University started in the late 1950s with preparation of the land of the former local airport on the left bank of the river Nitra.

The architects decided on the implementation of pavilion system of development, with which they already had a lot of experience. They achieved a clear and well-differentiated operation linked to an exterior, offering an easy possibility of staged construction.

The main compositional axis leading from the city center closes with the lens-shaped auditorium - Aula Maxima. On its sides are a high-rise building of the Rectorate with its Departments, as well as three 7-storey teaching Pavilions. Like a solitaire, a chemical pavilion is also based on the same layout principles.

Text based on Oddelenie architektúry and ASB.sk .
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All photos by Pavel Hache .
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‘Vila K (Through the Corridors)’

Architect: Oskar Singer
Designed & Built: 1934
Location: Nitra (Slovakia)

The layout of the apartment is the result of a carefully considered functional arrangement. The residential areas are located in the main section of the layout, in the part of the house on pilotis, and consist of a living room, dining room, and the owners’ bedroom.

While the living room with the dining area, interconnected by wide double-wing doors, constituted the daytime area accesible from the entrance spaces, the owners’ apartment with a bathroom was situated in the rear part of the layout as a private section.

The dining room is connected to the kitchen with a maid’s room. These are concentrated, along with the corridor and bathroom, in the side block. In addition to the staircase entrance, the architect also included house facilities such as boiler room, laundry room, and drying room in the original part of the ground floor.
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Text based on ‘Villa K - The History and Present of the Kollmann Family House in Nitra published by Vila K .
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All photos by Pavel Hache .
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‘Scheu House’

Architect: Adolf Loos
Designed & Built: 1912-1913
Location: Vienna (Austria)

One of the first residential projects by the master of space Adolf Loos in Vienna. An unusually modular house that makes excellent use of walkable terraces, significantly expanding the living space and providing another example of the connection between the exterior and the interior.

Designed after a journey to Algeria, Loos was probably influenced by terraced houses that he introduced to Vienna with this building. “It aroused general disapproval. (…) Someone asked to City Council that the building was prohibited by law.”

The design, which was very radical for 1912, was not only a response to the client’s wish to open the living space towards the garden. Technical advances had made a flat roof possible and with it, terraces.

Loos applied the principle of terracing and the idea of accessing the terrace, located on the east side of the house, from any of the bedrooms, as a symbol of personal freedom.

Text based on archiweb.cz Archweb.com Az W Architekturzentrum Wien and https://www.facebook.com/designculture.it .

Highlights from the 2019 exhibition of architecture scale models of Adolf Loos houses made by japanese professor Yoshio Sakurai at at Winternitzova vila .

All photos by Pavel Hache .
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