The son of the client viewed the apartment according to the Loose concept in Plzeň

Plzeň - For the second time since 1939, when he had to flee from Plzeň with his family to escape the Nazis, Willy Semler visited today the house at Klatovská Street 110. The now ninety-year-old man living in Australia is the last surviving son of Oskar Semler, who had the interior of this building designed according to the concept of the world-renowned architect Adolf Loos. Willy Semler grew up in it from 1923 until he was 15 years old. The building is now managed by the West Bohemian Gallery in Plzeň, which is undergoing renovations; the interior will be partially presented to the public in 2015 when Plzeň will be the European Capital of Culture.
    "I was here for the first time in 1991, but we didn't want it back. I remembered it very well; a lot has changed, the colors are much darker," recalled Willy Semler, who made a living in Australia by importing iron from Europe and as a consultant in various engineering firms. He told reporters that he personally met Loos in Karlovy Vary and also has memories of his student Heinrich Kulka, who designed the Semler apartment based on Loos's concept. According to Willy Semler, the apartment on Klatovská was not exactly cozy. "Kulka and Loos didn't fit us, but we kids didn't care as long as we got a roll and tea in the morning," he said with a smile.
    According to Petr Domanický, curator of the architecture collection at the West Bohemian Gallery, the apartment interior from 1932 to 1934 represents the culmination of a series of Loos's works in Plzeň, both in terms of its creation period and its concept and generosity. The interior spans several floors, linking it to the solution of Prague's Müller villa, and the similar spatial concept based on the so-called Raumplan is inserted into an older garden apartment building on the edge of the Bezovka villa district.
    Last year, the gallery began a gradual repair of the entire building and restoration of the apartment interior, which is expected to be partially accessible to the public in 2015. A research center for architecture in the Plzeň region with a small exhibition and additional spaces for cultural events is also to be established in the building.
    The unique apartment interior was commissioned by the family of Oskar Semler, a prominent Plzeň entrepreneur and co-owner of the factory whose most famous product was the manufacture of gramophone needles. The West Bohemian Gallery has been collaborating with Willy Semler for four years, who, through his memories, provides numerous details about the original appearance and functioning of the apartment and the house, as well as various documents.
    The West Bohemian Gallery took over the building in 2012 and is now seeking funding for its project from the so-called Norwegian funds, requesting nearly 30 million crowns. If unsuccessful, it will repair it in parts, with funds from its founder, the Plzeň region. The first phase of the reconstruction was completed in 2013, for which the gallery received 4.7 million; it has received four million crowns for this year and has been promised three million from the region for 2015.