The functionalistic villa built in the years 1938-1939 by architect František Albert Libra is a cultural heritage. It was designed as an administration building for the AGA, a.s. company, which also has in its grounds industrial buildings for the production of dissous gas and oxygen, also projected by F.A.Libra. The villa has hallmarks of a representative functionalistic office and residential building: characteristic sheet glass windows, with cantilever projected storeys and steel pillars supporting individual staircases. In the basement there was a boiler room, on the ground floor a room for communication with customers and a show room, on the 1st floor offices and on the 2nd floor an apartment for the director. In 2006, on the basis of a grant given by the City Town Hall repairs and replacement of windows were made and the façade of the building was renewed. From its bad state it is being returned to its original singular appearance.
František Albert Libra
Born on 8. 4. 1891 in Česky Herálec. He studied architecture at the Czech (1910-13) and German (1913-16) Technical College in Prague. In the years 1916-20 he served in the army, in 1920 he completed his university studies, that had been interrupted by the war. He was an independent architect from 1921. He made study trips all over Europe. He had wide cultural interests: actively music-violoncello, history, philosophy. Co-operation with the Czechoslovak Automobile Club. Documentation about his numerous works he displayed at international exhibitions in Prague, Brussels, Paris (silver medal). In the years 1948-52 he was employed at Stavoprojekt, 1952-58 in Energoprojekt in Prague. He died on 3. 6. 1958 in Prague. F. A. Libra belonged among the foremost Czech functionalist architects. The number of competition projects (approx. 50) and especially the amount of realised buildings witness his extraordinary talent and diligence. He spanned a wide spectrum of architectural creation - urbanism, residential buildings, finance houses and sanatoria, day nurseries and kindergartens, public swimming pools, industrial buildings, interiors, but also posters and minor designs. His buildings were unique by their perfect solution of their operational functioning and cultivated architectural expression. Especially his largest and best known achievement - the estate of the sanatorium for treatment of tuberculosis in Vyšne Hágy - belong to the best and most sensitive functionalistic structures in our country in the thirties of the last century.
Source: ing.arch. Kamil Dvořák, DrSc., www.archiweb.cz
František Albert Libra
Born on 8. 4. 1891 in Česky Herálec. He studied architecture at the Czech (1910-13) and German (1913-16) Technical College in Prague. In the years 1916-20 he served in the army, in 1920 he completed his university studies, that had been interrupted by the war. He was an independent architect from 1921. He made study trips all over Europe. He had wide cultural interests: actively music-violoncello, history, philosophy. Co-operation with the Czechoslovak Automobile Club. Documentation about his numerous works he displayed at international exhibitions in Prague, Brussels, Paris (silver medal). In the years 1948-52 he was employed at Stavoprojekt, 1952-58 in Energoprojekt in Prague. He died on 3. 6. 1958 in Prague. F. A. Libra belonged among the foremost Czech functionalist architects. The number of competition projects (approx. 50) and especially the amount of realised buildings witness his extraordinary talent and diligence. He spanned a wide spectrum of architectural creation - urbanism, residential buildings, finance houses and sanatoria, day nurseries and kindergartens, public swimming pools, industrial buildings, interiors, but also posters and minor designs. His buildings were unique by their perfect solution of their operational functioning and cultivated architectural expression. Especially his largest and best known achievement - the estate of the sanatorium for treatment of tuberculosis in Vyšne Hágy - belong to the best and most sensitive functionalistic structures in our country in the thirties of the last century.
Source: ing.arch. Kamil Dvořák, DrSc., www.archiweb.cz