Residential buildings for the Railway Housing Fund (Železniční bytový fond) | Objects

Even before the first post-war prefabricated housing estates were built in Jihlava, the construction of several separate apartment blocks located between the existing housing estates was undertaken. An example of this was a pair of apartment blocks for the Brno Railway Housing Fund (Železniční bytový fond, ŽEBYFO), which were built soon after the end of the Second World War in the vacant plots in Bezručova and Jana Masaryka Streets in the Špitálské suburb. It was designed by the architect César Grimmich (1913–1996), who was chairman of the Jihlava City Committee (Městský národní výbor) from 1945–1946 . The project for both buildings was created in 1947. Although their construction was part of the two-year economic plan for the reconstruction of the town and should have been completed by 1948, neither building was officially approved for use until 1950. However, their appearance corresponds very closely to what is known as two-year architecture.

A four-storey house with twelve dwellings was built on Bezručova Street. The architect placed three smaller flats and a "bachelor's room" on the ground floor, and three multi-room dwellings on each of the other three floors. The house has a basement, and Grimmich designed a drying room and laundry room in the attic. The staircase is located in the middle of the layout and permeates the frontage in the form of a vertical strip of glass blocks. This slight central avant-corps forms the main motif of the façade, which is relatively austere, segmented by a regular grid of windows. The architect had the ground floor clad in stone, the façade above had scratched plaster in two shades. Thanks to these details, it is not a featureless building.

On Jana Masaryka Street (called Churchillova Street at the time of the construction), a slightly smaller four-storey building with eight three-room flats was built. Here, too, the architect placed the central staircase in the middle of the layout, but against the courtyard wall, where it can be discerned behind the large windows above the rear entrance. The street façade, unlike the house on Bezručova Street, does not have a distinctive motif on the central axis and the frontage is much more austere. The main separating element here was supposed to be the strips of loggias in the extreme axes of the house, which are drawn on Grimmich's plans from 1947, but apparently were not built in the end. The ground floor is clad in stone again, and the façade on the upper floors has uniform scratched and coloured plaster. A vacant plot was left between this house and the neighbouring corner house no. 1596 so that the courtyard, which was rather cramped due to the sharp angle of the streets, would not be closed and the opposite buildings would have enough light.

Although the ŽEBYFO apartment blocks are rather inconspicuous from an architectural point of view, the buildings can be appreciated as unique examples of the two-year architecture in Jihlava integrated into the existing built-up area.

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