Vogl Apartment
The interior is part of the 1st tour route
The Vogl and Kraus Apartments
The adaptation of the apartment according to Loos’ design was completed in 1928 on the second storey of the Friedler family home, and it was done so for Josef Vogl, a paediatrician, and his wife Štěpánka, the homeowner’s daughter. Surprisingly, the interior was made in place of Loos’ former creation completed in 1908 for the family of entrepreneur Otto Beck. He allowed Loos to redesign this interior, while he and all the furniture moved to his new address. The design for Dr Vogl and his family, however, was completely different, both in terms of the apartment’s furnishings and dispositions. That’s because here Loos was creating a space not only for the family but also a medical practice, i.e., a clinic, a waiting room, and a room for X-rays. Unfortunately, we don’t know the appearance of these rooms because neither they nor any pictures of them survived today. However, beautiful photos taken in the private parts of the apartment, including the living room, dining room, and the children’s room, are kept in an archive by the Albertina Museum in Vienna.
WWII dramatically impacted this address as well. Firstly, the Friedler family was forced to forfeit its mine called Lukavické hlinkové doly S. a O. Friedler, and then they had to move out of the house in 1941. In the January convoys of 1942, Štěpánka’s parents, Sigmund and Emma, were dragged away to the concentration camp Terezín, where they died only a few months later. Josef, Štěpánka, and their children managed to flee Czechoslovakia in 1939 and escape to Canada. Today, the family’s descendants still live across the ocean.
In 1941, the home was handed over to the German Reich and then joined with the neighbouring home two years later (the former Škoda family residence) to create an office building for the Labour Authority. Thus, the original apartments were transformed into offices, and only part of Loos’ charming interior remained, which served as the impressive management offices.
This allowed two rooms to still survive today, which were filled with exact replicas of the original, free-standing furniture after a challenging renovation project. The spacious lounge is adorned by a cherry-wood veneer with built-in frames for Japanese wood engravings. The heart of the room is a red brick fireplace lined by half columns of shell-covered marble. Opposite the fireplace, there’s a gold-sparkling dining room with a yellow travertine veneer, a golden reminder of the past.
The City of Pilsen is the apartment’s current owner. Challenging renovations were completed in 2014. The design for the repairs and restorations was developed by a team under the guidance of Professor of Architecture Václav Girsa.
The seat and backrest are upholstered with coloured tarpaulins. There’s a line of upholstery nails with rounded heads that appear like a golden chain on the edges of the upholstery. Loos places these wicker chairs, each with a different coloured upholstery, in the dining room with a yellow travertine veneer.
(Claire Beck-Loos: Adolf Loos – A Private Portrait)