Operating on the Modern: a villa in the Czech Republic

Called to intervene in the renovation and extension of Villa Wellnerova, built in the early 1930s in Olomouc, Czech Republic, Jan Pospíšil and the group of architects and engineers from the PAB studio wanted to formulate a philological approach to the recovery of the Modern heritage. This was pursued in attempting to get closer to the building's original image, even in the extensions that became necessary. 

Although the paternity of the original work is uncertain, the designers sought its salient features. Extensive remodelling in the early 2000s had profoundly altered the house's interior layout and external appearance, so PAB studio relied on original drawings to reconstruct a reference image of the work in its modernist language. 

Having rediscovered the white walls and the purity of volumes, the need to enlarge the house's spaces led to the addition of a new structure. While respecting the geometries of the existing building, and placing itself in continuity with linguistic choices, the new volume is visually detach from the pre-existing building. Through elements such as the ribbon window, which runs the entire length of the new walls, a cut is defined between the addition and the roof, rebalancing the proportion between solids and voids, which underlines the verticality of the new element. The garage, previously placed close to the fence, moved closer to the villa, becomes a possibility for designing its outdoor space, together with a series of terraces that integrate the ground design. 

The reconstruction of a modernist image as this project's primary interest allows us to reflect on how to act on the Modern heritage, showing the possibility of enhancing the original character of the project. Pospíšil's intervention is sensitive to recovering an aspect that had been lost over the decades but can still determine expressive possibilities, even concerning transformation needs.