State Student Home (Státní studentský domov) in Jihlava

   
The halls of residence for 320 secondary school students was built on the site of a mid-1920s city farmstead, the buildings of which had been demolished in 1956. The building, constructed from 1956–1959, is situated in the less built-up area of Žižkova Street, in close proximity to another school building, the Masaryk Jubilee Schools (Masarykovy jubilejní školy) by Alois Mezera, which was built from 1929–1931. At that time, they stood on the very edge of the Matiční (Panenské) suburb. Beyond the borders of this suburb, between Na Hliništi and Sukova Streets, there is an island of houses with gardens which were built in this part of the town from the beginning of the 20th century until the First World War.

The project of the State Student Home from 1955 was created under the State Design Institute (Státní projektový ústav) in České Budějovice with a branch in Jihlava. It was designed by the architect Jiří Herzán, and the head of construction was František Kubíček. The symmetrical building faces the street with a monumental four-storey frontage. It has a simple and regular sequence of square windows, with emphasis on the central avant-corps with the entrance, staircase, recessed loggias and attic. The concept of volume and segmentation of the building use clear forms, with a classical division into a plinth with a fine strip bossage, part of the storeys with windows in lesene frames with sill cassettes, a distinctive cornice, and an inclined roof. The motifs of the fine bossage, lesene frames, and square panels are then adopted in a more decorative form by the entrance portico.

Most of the main wing on all floors was occupied by student rooms facing the street. On the ground floor, there were 17 dormitories, 2 study rooms, sanitary facilities, wardens' rooms, and the necessary facilities for the caretaker, office, etc. The remaining three floors had an identical layout with 21 dormitories per floor, study rooms, a warden's room, and social and other facilities. The halls of residence could thus accommodate 320 pupils in 80 rooms, each for 4 students. As most of the windows were in the private part of the student rooms, sufficient light was perhaps provided by the glass stairwell and the enclosed balconies, both facing the garden on the north side of the building. Towards the courtyard, the main wing was then connected with two ground-floor parts – a connecting section with an atrium, leading to a building with a dining room, kitchen, playroom, and technical facilities. In the handover certificate, the building is described as "a brick building with prefabricated ceilings, foundations made of concrete interlaced with stone; brickwork, carpentry trusses, purlin systems with binding joists, roofing made of interlocking roof tiles, smooth lime plaster inside, roughcast finish outside, concrete flooring in the basement and attic, corridors and accessories of cast terrazzo”, with standardised windows and doors, which means that the building does not deviate from the typical technology of the time.

The project builds on the post-war housing development of the 1950s, which was later complemented with the construction of basic amenities, including schools and associated halls of residence. The building, which was handed over for use on 21 April 1959, was created at a time of relaxation of socialist realism previously dictated to architects. However, its appearance departs from socialist realism only to a limited extent, especially in the graphic art form and monumentalisation of certain classical and decorative forms. Given the time of its creation and the type of the commission, the architect of the building, Jiří Herzán (1921–2003), could not contribute much from a creative point of view. At that time, he was a relatively young architect employed by Stavoprojekt in Jihlava, and the project was one of his first major commissions. The architect, who had been engaged in the Sokol organisation throughout his life and who had contemplated the concept and urban design of tent camps, where the proximity to nature played a key role, undoubtedly prioritised the care for the surroundings of the State Pupil Home building. He purposely preserved the full-grown trees along the street line, and in the same way, emphasised the importance of keeping deciduous trees on the north side of the school, with an adjacent park with trees providing the students with a place to relax. During the construction, however, nine mature and healthy deciduous trees were cut down, which Jiří Herzán objected to in a letter addressed to the City National Committee (MNV), albeit in vain:"The designer of the Pupil Home therefore included this valuable mature greenery within the grounds of the Pupil Home, and by an explicit note on the situation and in the accompanying report he drew attention to the inviolability and irreplaceable value of this complex of full-grown trees."

While the greenery in the immediate vicinity of the school is not part of the architecture itself, in this case it is one aspect that reduces its monumental character. This is particularly in comparison with other Jihlava state commissions from this period, for example the former District National Committee building (Okresní národní výbor) at Vrchlického Street 46, now the police headquarters, from 1956–59, which in its enclosed four-wing composition looks much more like an impregnable palace. Among the contemporary buildings of the same type, the halls of residence can be compared with the primary school on Evžena Rošického Street from 1956–58, which uses the same compositional forms and architectural elements.

The new halls of residence complements the development of Žižkova Street, in its appearance and layout respecting the character set by the neighbouring Mezerova School, both in the street line, in the basic dimensions, and in the colours. Its well-preserved architecture works with classical shapes and its proportions tend towards a slight ponderousness, but its concept avoids ornamental understatement and uses rather moderate monumentality.

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