House with Chimaeras
Władysław Horodecki · Kyiv, Ukraine · 1903
Architect Władysław Horodecki designed the House with Chimaeras as both an apartment building and a display of the possibilities of reinforced concrete. Its otherwise formal urban mass is covered with an extraordinary collection of sculpted animals, mythological figures and hunting motifs created by Emilio Sala. The dramatic ornament turns roofline, balconies and drainage elements into an architectural menagerie. Built in the early 1900s on a steep Kyiv site, the house combines new construction technology with Art Nouveau and eclectic symbolism and remains one of the city’s most distinctive turn-of-the-century buildings.