Even though the two-floor wooden apartments for rent in Kaunas gained popularity during the “flat crisis”, which started immediately after the end of World War One, cheaper, more compact, oriented at workers’ social class flats remained popular during the whole period of the First Independence. It influenced the popularity of these buildings. The vast majority of city’s wooden apartments were built in the Western end of Zaliakalnis, which was known for the inhabitants from the middle and lower social classes. One typical example is the House of Stasys Butkus. In the plan for the first floor it is planned to have a spacious apartment for the owner and two small two and three room flats with small, symbolically separated but joint wit rooms’ environments kitchens. This compact solution is not common in buildings of similar type – in cheaper houses the kitchen usually also served as the dining room. The second floor contains two pairs of two and three room flats. It is interesting to note that the flats on the front end and back end of the house had to have a separate staircase.
Paulius Tautvydas Laurinaitis