The villa designed by Rudolf Fränkel, in Smolec near Wrocław

Maria Zwierz

doi:10.5277/arc150206

Abstract

This, to date completely unknown in Polish literature, villa was built in 1931–1932, representing the concept of organic building (organhaftes Bauen), formulated in 1925 by Hugo Häring. The design was created by an architect, being then a rising star of the Berlin architecture, the designer of several  luxury villas, but above all Berlin housing estates, including the Atlantic estate with fi ve hundred apartments, leisure facilities and the “Lichtburg” cinema. The very promising architectural career of Fränkl was interrupted in dramatic circumstances in 1933 due to his Jewish ancestors.     Fränkl’s employer and the villa’s owner was Robert Stern, a horticulturist with refi ned taste and high artistic aspirations, who in Brochów (now a quarter of Wrocław) ran a horticulture enterprise and who participated in horticultural exhibitions collecting both experience and awards. Around 1930 he moved his company to the outskirts of Smolec and at the pond, within a large estate he built the villa, designed by Fränkl. This villa rustica with excellent, almost Palladian, proportions and luxurious, individually decorated interiors was designed from the inside to the outside, its spaces were linked with the landscape and a panoramic view of the pond and the nature from two large terraces. Photographs of very good quality taken by the photographer Max Krajewski constantly cooperating with the architect, published in the contemporary architecture magazines give an idea of its original shape and comfort, adapted to the expectations of the owners. The house, although strongly rebuilt, still exists. The article presents all available information about the shape and architectural details of the villa, its designer and oryginal owners.