During the 1980s, the Zahájí suburb was significantly transformed – most of the historical housing was replaced with terraced houses for employees of the Vertex factory. Among those, an architectonically distinctive group of thirteen houses in Jabloňová Street proves that even during a time when individual housing was frowned upon, it was possible to design terraced houses which were of unique design and offered their inhabitants optimal comfort and intimacy.
Originally, the same type of standardized houses as those in the nearby, upper part of Jabloňová Street was to have been built here. However, a project for a group of buildings in a periodical of the time, Bydlení, took the builders' fancy. They asked its designer, the Prague architect Jiří Lasovský, if he would prepare a project for Litomyšl. The architect negotiated with representatives of the builders and with the building department of Litomyšl Town Council and, in the end, came up with an unconventional design which takes into account the surrounding built-up area, the sloping terrain and the incline of the road.
The so-called “two-generation” houses, in sets of twos (with the exception of the first house) consist of a ground floor and attic with a pitched roof. The individual sets are conceived as semi-detached units with the load-bearing walls of the long sides of the houses stepped back in relation to one another thus, creating a sheltered entrance to each house and a degree of shelter in the garden. This stepping back and shifting of the tracts dictates the distinctive shape of the roof, creates a natural link between the old houses of the housing estate and the historical buildings, and aids in consolidating the scale of the more modestly-sized buildings. In front of each set of houses, facing the road, there are twin garages connected with a covered space for parking. The architect included separate designs for greenery, paving and fencing within the overall design.
However, the builders did not entirely abide by the plans, mainly due to the unavailability of some building components or materials. The southernmost houses Nos. 314–315 have remained most faithful to the original project.
