The exhibition recalls the London apartment designed by Jan Kaplický

Prague - This evening, an exhibition opens at the Winternitz Villa in Prague's Smíchov district, recalling one of the first projects by architect Jan Kaplický. It is called Interior Dialogue and, using archival photographs, interior furnishings, and testimonies from the owner, it presents the London apartment of British writer and design and architecture critic Deyan Sudjic.

In 1983, Deyan Sudjic, the future director of the London Design Museum, commissioned a reconstruction of his new apartment in a mid-19th-century building. "As a critic of architecture, I really felt a certain responsibility not only to tell other people what architecture is, but also to invest in myself and in my apartment. So I thought it interesting to collaborate with an interesting architect... Jan came up with those magical drawings that showed a spaceship parked inside this very conventional London house," Sudjic described the beginning of the collaboration in an interview with the exhibition curator Adam Štech.

The metallic monochromatic character of the apartment reflects Kaplický's interest in technological progress and his aesthetics. In the bathroom, for example, he installed a vertical aluminum panel on which three main bathroom elements were placed, including a toilet, bath, and sink. This created a spatial universal element, a sort of "body cleansing machine," which also allowed for easy maintenance.

"The first half of the 1980s is, in this sense, the pinnacle of Kaplický's technological period. Later, the architect will focus more on organically conceived architecture than on admiration for the beauty of the technologies themselves. This transformation will later manifest itself during the 1990s in his visionary projects as well as in his famous rounded-shaped realizations," Štech stated.

The exhibition was prepared by the Winternitz Villa in cooperation with the Kaplicky Center. The Winternitz Villa in Smíchov is a less known building by architect Adolf Loos in the capital, which he co-designed with Karel Lhota, alongside the Müller Villa in Střešovice. It is named after lawyer Josef Winternitz, who had it built for his family in 1932. However, they only occupied it until 1941, when they were forced to relinquish the villa under the pressure of racial persecution. Later, the property was purchased by the municipal authorities of Prague, which established a kindergarten in the villa. It continuously housed the kindergarten until 1997.

The whole family was transported to Terezín in 1943 and later to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Only the wife of the original owner, Jenny Winternitz, and their daughter Suzana returned, but they never saw the villa again. The descendants who run it today found out about the villa only in 1991 when preparing for restitution. The villa is open for visits from Sunday to Wednesday between 12:00 and 18:00 and every Saturday and Sunday as part of guided tours. Various concerts, theater performances, and lectures are also held at the villa.