105 years ago, the author of the Litvínov Koldom, Hilský, was born

Václav Hilský, collaboration Evžen Linhart, Collective House in Litvínov, 1946 - 1957

Prague - Architect Václav Hilský, who was born on September 6, 1909, in Valašské Meziříčí, influenced the appearance of many Czech towns and villages through his projects. The most famous building that emerged from Hilský's drawing board is the Collective House in Litvínov. A graduate of the School of Applied Arts, he designed it together with Evžen Linhart under the influence of the famous Le Corbusier in the late 1940s. "Koldům" was officially completed in 1958, but its concept did not quite meet the real needs of people.
The apartments are tiny; according to the architects' vision, their residents were supposed to spend most of their free time together, perhaps in common rooms, and dine in a dining hall, with a nursery built for children. Over the years, however, it became apparent that people prefer a private life, and the original main idea of the Collective House faded away. Today, it functions as a regular apartment building, where its tenants have to deal with small kitchens, and some common spaces are left empty.
In addition to the pioneering Litvínov building, Hilský (among other things, the father of the Shakespeare translator Martin Hilský) also designed the new Lidice and the unrealized reconstruction of Kladno's center from the mid-1960s. He also worked on the design of housing estates, with his projects found in Kladno (Sítná), Ostrava (Poruba), and Příbram (Březové Hory center). The architect, who designed houses for the poor even before the war, also contributed to the Centrotex building in Heroes' Square in Prague. Hilský passed away in October 2001 at the age of 92.