Kubistický dům v Neklanově ulici Tenement house

Welcome to one of the most beautiful and quiet streets of Prague's Vyšehrad. Please stop for a moment, take a breath, and focus fully on the building that is standing in front of you right now. You stand before one of the most important works of Czech architecture, which carries courage, experiment and extraordinary imagination. The first impression of this house is often both fascinating and disturbing. Look at the surface. You don't see smooth, flat walls that you know from most ordinary apartment buildings. Instead, you are welcomed by the game of light and shadow, sharp edges and surfaces that break in unexpected angles. It is a building that not only compares with the environment, but actively communicates with it in its unshakeable form.

Let's go back more than a hundred years together. It is the year of a thousand and nine hundred and thirteen and in Prague the atmosphere of creative turbulence and search for new paths reigns. It was this year that the talented architect Josef Chochol started working on the project of this house. It was no ordinary task. The goal of the Chochol was to create something that would shift the boundaries of then's understanding of beauty and functionality. The investor who gave him a green lamp for this investment and provided financial facilities was František Hodek. The cooperation of these two men resulted in a thousand nine hundred fourteen in the completion of the construction you see today. It was a time shortly before the great world of the coup, but there was space in this street that was meant to emit both stability and modernity.

Now I ask you to pay your full attention to the details that are right before your eyes. Look up at the ledge, the horizontal protruding parts under the roof or between the floors. Notice how they're not straight, but they're made of typical broken surfaces. Now move your view down to the windows. Follow their parapets. Here, too, you see the same principle. Architect Josef Chochol did not work with the surface of the wall as a surface on which only something would stick, but worked with the matter of the house as a whole. All these elements, from roms to window details, are designed to create a dynamic rhythm. It's almost like watching a crystal that grew right out of Prague. Feel the rays of the sun bounce from the different angles of the facade, causing the house to look a little different every hour of the day.

If we think more about who created this house, we must acknowledge the genius of Josef Chochol. He was able to take the practical purpose of an apartment building, that is, buildings designed to rent apartments, and turn it into an artistic object. František Hodek, as an investor, had to have extraordinary taste and courage to implement such a proposal. It wasn't obvious at the time. This house was not just a byte, it was an expression of a new age, an attempt to pluck architecture from the frames of old traditions and give it a new, modern face.

Now please move slowly to the corners of the building. This is where one of the largest attractions of the entire building is located. The house is considered a work of world importance because of the unique solution of this corner. Notice how naturally and yet boldly the building bends and adapts to space. It's a masterpiece of geometry. And it is geometry that brings us to another fascinating fact. If you look at the way the house is on the ground, you'll find that the land on which it was built wasn't easy at all. The construction was built on a narrow terrain and the plot itself was shaped like a trapezoid. This means that the architect had to work with a very specific and irregular space to fit this monumental house into it. The fact that the result is so harmonious and balanced suggests the enormous expertise of Josef Chochol.

When you go around the house, notice one strange change in the form of an entrance to the garage in the facade of Neklan Street. This element was not originally here. It was only destroyed in the year one thousand nine hundred thirty-nine. It is an interesting contrast between the original, pure aesthetic vision of the architect and the later practical needs of the people who had already started using cars. Even though this intervention disrupted the original face of the facade, today it reminds us of how life in the city changed and how buildings had to adapt to new technologies.

While we are standing outside now admiring the exterior, allow me to take you for a brief picture in the inner space. In the interior there are rare details that are as important as the facade itself. Imagine the original doors, railings and handles that were designed in the same spirit as the rest of the house. Every touch of such a handle is a touch of history and art. These details are proof that the architect did not only solve what was seen from the street, but wanted the whole experience of the house to be united from the first step in the hall to the last ledge on the roof.

Given how unique this building was, it was quite natural that the state recognized its value. In a thousand and nine hundred and sixty-four, the house was officially declared protected. This means that its appearance and essence are now protected for future generations so that this example of Czech courage in architecture is not lost in time.

Now, if you look at the whole house for the last time, try to perceive its atmosphere. It is a building that combines the stability of the Hungarian Massif, at whose foot it stands, with the ease and dynamics of modern thinking. It's where mathematics met poetry and where concrete and stone began to dance in sharp angles.

Thank you for stopping by this special house on Neklan Street. I hope you've found the time to see the little breaks and the big visions that make this space. Now I invite you to continue to explore the Vyšehrad area, to perceive its quiet calm and to look for other traces of history that keeps this place so beautifully inside. I wish you a pleasant further walk and many new discoveries. Goodbye.