Villa Müller
Nad Hradním vodojemem 14
CZ 162 00 Prague 6 - Střešovice
Czech Republic
Adolf Loos 1930
Completed in the same year
as Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye
in Paris and Mies van der Rohe’s Villa Tugendhat in Brno, the Villa Müller
is Loos’s defining modern house in an era when rich, progressive
industrialists were the source of modernist commissions. In Loos’s case the
client owned a building company pioneering the use of reinforced concrete,
so the house was a particularly relevant showcase.
While Frank Lloyd Wright
was perfecting the seamlessness of the transition from inside to outside,
Loos was deliberately keeping the public outside and the private inside of
his houses as separate as possible. "The building should
be dumb outside and only reveal wealth inside." Outside, the Villa
Müller is distinguished by its cubic shape, with flat roof and terraces, its
irregular windows and its clean, white façade.
Inside, the Villa Müller is
at once more traditional and more original. The materials are warm, rich
and comforting, and the furniture a deliberately eclectic mix of traditional
styles. The client is not required to conform to some all-consuming modern
lifestyle. On the other hand the spatial planning of the building is where
Loos was most innovative.
The
Villa Müller is, in Loos's own view, his best application of his spatial
planning or "Raumplan":
My
architecture is not conceived by drawings, but by spaces. I do not draw
plans, facades or sections... For me, the ground floor, first floor do
not exist... There are only interconnected continual spaces, rooms,
halls, terraces... Each space needs a different height... These spaces
are connected so that ascent and descent are not only unnoticeable, but
at the same time functional.
This spatial design,
finished with luxurious and vibrant marbles, woods and silks, “combined
innovative architectural design with the cultural conception that the upper
middle class had of itself” (August Sarnitz).
Loos uses the different
levels of the Raumplan to create a careful
“architectural promenade” from outside to inside. The first entrance way is
low, with strong but dark colors such as deep green/blue tiles. This opens
onto a cloakroom area that is generous in plan, brighter with white walls
and a big window, but still low. At the far end a short, modest staircase
takes the visitor round a right-angle bend, emerging dramatically between
marble pillars into the double-height, open-plan sitting room.
The promenade continues
past the raised dining room to the upper floors of
the house, the Raumplan providing unusual and
exciting views into adjacent rooms. On the top level is a roof terrace,
with a “window” in the freestanding end wall to frame the view of Prague
cathedral.
Simon
Glynn 2005
How to visit
The Villa Müller was
comprehensively restored in 2000 and is open to the public, operated as
part of the City of Prague Museum. It is open
only on certain days of the week, and can be visited only on a guided
tour (in English or Czech) at pre-defined times. It is therefore
essential that you book your visit in advance, which you can do at the
Villa Müller’s
web site. You can also try calling
+420
224312012
or emailvila.muller@muzeumprahy.cz.
The Villa is in the
Střešovicearea to the northwest of Prague’s city
center. To get there, take Tram 18 to the Ořechovka
stop. Walk forward to the end of the tram stop
and you will see the Villa Müller up the hillside on your left. You can
climb a public stepped path just beyond the Villa to reach the front
entrance of the building.
Further visitor
information, history, photographs and directions
are at the Villa Müller’s
web site.
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