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House of Doctor N. Nagornienė

Kaunas, Lithuania
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M. Plepio nuotrauka, 2019 m.

Doctor Nadiežda Nagornienė, who wanted to build an apartment block for herself and other professionals who wanted to practice their jobs, submitted an application for construction to the city authorities in 1933. The main idea was to have a building in one of the most prestigious streets of the city centre in Kaunas for practising their jobs separately, but at the same time, share the same setting. The architect Adolfas Netyksa was commissioned to design the building, and he created a compact modernist block of flats that blended in well with the neighbourhood. The apartments were designed to accommodate clients, with separate entrances from the staircase leading to offices with waiting rooms. Unfortunately, the original design was never built, and it was changed three times between the start and the end of construction. Due to numerous irregularities, the work was stopped several times, and several legal proceedings were initiated for unauthorised construction and disregard of the project. The construction finished in 1934.

Once the house was built, the legal disputes continued for another two years. The three-storey building has features of historicist architecture. The façade is divided into two bay windows connected by balconies on the second and third floors. While the second-floor balcony has a solid balustrade, the third-floor balcony has a metal balustrade which consists of horizontal metal bars. Above the balconies, at the top of the building, the roofline is punctuated by massive moulded cornices, with an expressive stepped attic above and an attic apartment behind, which has a large terrace spanning the whole width of the house. On top of the bay windows, there are three small circular windows. Furthermore, at the middle axis, where there is a stepped gable, there is an oval motif. The apartments have direct entrances to their kitchens from the staircase, and the main entrance to the house is from the driveway.

Between 1938 and 1939, the fourth apartment in the building hosted the Hungarian consulate. Today only flats are located in the building. Since 2015, the structure has had the European Heritage Label.

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