Commercial and residential building for Marie and Jan Ševců

A commercial and residential building for Marie and Jan Ševců was built on the corner of Štefánikova and Školní streets between the years of 1936 and 1937. Like other apartment buildings in Zlín, this one offered a variety of flat sizes with smaller and large units as well as bachelor apartments. These were supplemented by business units on the ground floor. The original design of the two-storey house was changed in December 1936 and the house was increased by another floor. There were several arguments for this change. The street was to gain in prominence, so the height matched the height of the existing house on Štefánikova Street. In addition, the foundations of the house had already been dimensioned for the third floor. One of the other reasons was the planned increase in living space, which also increased the profitability and thus lowered the financial burden for the Ševců couple. At a time of ongoing economic uncertainty, this was a way to invest safely.

The round corner became the dominant element defining both streets. The author of the house is a lesser-known architect Viktor Jandásek, who, in addition to designing, also ran a construction company; he not only designed the house of Marie and Jan Ševců but he also built it, as he did many other apartment and family houses and villas for Zlín's entrepreneurs and wealthy townspeople in the 1930s and 1940s. To this day, there are several corner houses in the city with a recognisable architectural style characterised by curves and materials and colour schemes not typical for Zlín.

The trapezoidal-shaped plot (19 × 15 × 18 × 15 metres) was used for an L-shaped house plan. There is a total of four commercial units on the ground floor: the largest commercial space with 45 m² is reserved for a corner shop, two units are orientated towards Štefánikova street, and the other is orientated to Školní street. There is also a garage in the side of the building facing Školní street. The whole floor has a generous floor-to-ceiling height of 3.1m. On the other floors, living rooms are located around the perimeter of the facade. The double L-shaped staircase with a skylight, which is connected to service corridors, was placed in the middle of the layout. On the first and second floors there were one two-room apartments facing Štefánikova Street, and one three-room apartment with a kitchen, a maid's room, and a bathroom. These operating rooms were facing east to the courtyard in all apartments. On the third floor, there were three bachelor apartments with a shared bathroom, and one two-room apartment. The house also had an attic, containing two drying rooms and a storage room. The building has a basement under the whole layout, where, in addition to the cellars, there was also a warehouse used by a large store. The house of the Ševců couple is located in a visually exposed place. The distinctive position of the building is accentuated by the rounded corner volume which exceeds the height of the rest of the building, with three two-part windows on each floor and a continuous windowsill. Four-part casement windows are used in both residential wings. All window openings are connected by the protruding window sill, which adds fine plasticity to the façade. The bright façade with smooth plaster was clad in coloured glass in the strip above the shop windows.

In 2000, the original coloured glass panes were dismantled and replaced with light acrylate covered in foil. The entrance to the shops is now obscured by a layer of visual smog. The original appearance and rhythm of the façade has been preserved, however, and the house still provides a reminder of the quality interwar construction in the city centre.

 

 

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