About the site
Construction along Křížkovského Street (now Gudrichova) on Kylešovský Hill began only after 1918, in connection with the development of a new villa district. The construction was carried out according to the principles of the garden city concept by two German housing associations and one Czech association. While the Czech association focused on Kopečná (now Tyršova), Zukalova, Boženy Němcové streets and the northern part of Mendlova Street, the German associations concentrated on the southern part of Mendlova, Biermannova (now Bartoníčkova) and Křížkovského streets.
The northern part of Křížkovského Street was built up with apartment houses for state employees according to designs by the Provincial Building Authority (Gudrichova Street 3 and 6, 1921–1922, 1924–1926), or for officials of the Union of Czechoslovak Economic Cooperatives, designed by the builder Julius Vysloužil (Gudrichova Street 4, 1922). Later, detached houses and villas followed, often carried out by the building company of Julius Lundwall (e.g. Gudrichova Street 16, 18, 20, 22).
On the corner of what were then Křížkovského and Biermannova streets, engineer Franz Koschatka, originally from Opava but formerly active in Kladno, had a villa built in the mid-1920s, naming it after his wife Olga. The plans, signed by the building firm Alois Geldner in November 1925 and March 1926, must in fact have been the work of his son Erich, since Alois had passed away in 1923.
In line with the pre-war modern tradition, the house was designed for two families and has the character of an apartment villa. In the original layout, each floor contained a separate three-room apartment with kitchen and facilities, arranged around the staircase in the rear tract. The south façade facing the garden is accentuated by a cylindrical bay, a characteristic feature of Geldner’s residential buildings (he applied it, for example, in the Gebauer Villa on Hradecká Street or in the unbuilt design for the Zohner Villa), and by a corner veranda with a terrace above, providing access to the garden. The main entrance was situated in the cylindrical staircase bay on the north side. The layout was identical on both floors: the horseshoe staircase led to a vestibule, and from there to a hall. On the west side, adjacent to the staircase, were the service rooms – kitchen, pantry and maid’s room. From the vestibule or hall, there was access to the dining room, the living room located in the southern bay, the bedroom and the bathroom with toilet. The basement contained cellars, a laundry room, and a garden tools store.
In the 1970s, the villa was converted into a kindergarten, and in 2006 back into a private residence, though with significant changes to the layout. The original fencing has survived, with masonry pillars and plinths and metal infill – solid gates and wicket doors, and wire mesh panels with a unifying motif of square openings and crossed riveted straps. A circular window was created in the rounded corner, corresponding to an opening in the terrace pillar. On the north-east side, the fence was later moved behind the property boundary to create parking spaces.
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