VILLA MAJER

 

Location: Vilharjeva ulica 7

Architect: Jože Jelenc

Time of construction: 1931-1932

 

The family villa on Vilharjeva ulica 7 in the Koroško suburb was commissioned by merchant and landowner Franjo Majer. The Maribor construction company and technical office of Jože Jelenec and Vladimir Šlajmer, which was known as one of the largest in the town and its vicinity, made the plans for the villa. Jože Jelenec based his plans for Villa Majer on Vladimir Šubicʼs plans for the unrealized Villa Rudolf in Maribor; according to the preserved contract from 1930, Jože Jelenec himself participated in its construction. This hypothesis is confirmed by his use of completely new architectural motifs (e.g., cylindrical volume of the staircase, open corners and round windows), which were typical elements of Šubičʼs architectural language, as well as the fact that the architects probably knew each other from their years studying at the German University in Prague.

The ground plan of the two-storey villa with a basement is shaped like the letter L; its main façade faces east. The design of the building is based on the central cubic volume and a rectangular wing on the ground floor projecting out of it on the northwestern side. A cylindrical volume with a staircase is placed at the intersection of both parts. On the southern garden side, there is a slight terrace projection on the ground floor with a subsequent reconstruction, which provides access to the garden. The building's white plaster and unified profile of window frames, terrace parapets and the cornice contribute to the perception of a unified exterior. The whole building is covered with a flat roof and partly with an open terrace at the top. The author diversified the massive building volume with different heights of the gabarits of the individual parts of the building, flat roof and the terrace on the southern side of the building. The design of the whole is additionally varied with a hollowing of the entrance part on the northeast corner, which is comprised of a one-flight staircase on the ground floor and the open covered loggia on the floor; the motif of a parapet on the pillars, which connects the entrance to the building and the fence around it, and the western part of the partially covered terrace on the last floor of the villa.

Based on the preserved plans it is possible to approximately reconstruct the primary purpose of the rooms in the interior and the original pavement of some of the rooms. They planned for the half-basement to have a central anteroom, from where it was possible to go directly into the toilet room near the staircase; the two basement rooms, a furnace room and woodshed, a pantry and a kitchen. From the latter it was possible to access another room on the northern side, and from the furnace room and the woodshed to the greenhouse in the south. A similar arrangement of the rooms was repeated on all floors. On the eastern side of the ground floor, there were an entry vestibule, a toilet and a staircase, as well as three rooms with an unknown purpose on the eastern side. A dining room with access to the garden terrace was situated on the southeast corner, and a pass-through preparation room and an equipped kitchen on the northern side. From the kitchen it was possible to enter the pantry and the maids' bedroom, which were allocated on the ground floor of the building's rectangular volume. Only some of the rooms on the floor have a clearly defined purpose: the toilets near the main staircase, the study rooms near the covered, open loggia in the northeast corner, the spouse's bedroom with built-in closets and access to the garden terrace, and the furnished bathroom on the western part of the floor. A partly covered terrace occupies a large part of the top floor; only the northwest corner is used for a covered pool. A toilet is placed on the right side of the staircase, with a laundry room and an ironing room in the northeast corner.

Despite the fact that there were no significant changes made to Villa Majer, the building was in very poor condition at the beginning of the 1990s. In 1992 it was declared a monument of local significance, and a reconstruction project was carried out between 2001 and 2003. The building partially lost its primary purpose and gained a newly built garage and an entrance to a specialist doctor's office; however, the integrity of the modernist core of the building and its structure have been preserved.

Not much is known about the life and work of architect Jože Jelenec, only that he graduated under professor Josef Fanti at the German technical school in Prague in 1920, and that he actively participated in the creation of the interwar architectural scene in Maribor. Villa Majer is a product of Jelenecʼs mature creative period, characterised by a turn towards more modernist creations. Supposedly, a collaboration with architects Saša (Aleksander) Dev and Jaroslav Černigoj in the construction of the Dravska Banovina Savings Bank on Tyrševa ulica 2 between 1931 and 1932 was key for this turnaround, since Dev and Černigoj were among the leading architectural bureaus with a modern focus in Maribor in the first half of the 1930s.

 

Alenka Di Battista

(29 September 2014)