The house, built between 1928 and 1930, is one of the most important Mies van der Rohe buildings in Europe. Original interior design, elegant interior and its technical equipment make Villa Tugendhat a milestone in the so-called international architectural style.
House Tugendhat in Brno: facts
| Official title: | House Tugendhat in Brno |
| Cultural monument: | Villa built 1928-1930 in Brno based on designs by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe on behalf of the Jewish industrialist Fritz Tugendhat; Developed according to the principle of “flowing rooms” (walls without load-bearing function, only offset elements with aesthetic significance made of precious woods, marble, glass) and according to the unity of interior and exterior construction with a high level of technical perfection |
| Continent: | Europe |
| Country: | Czech Republic |
| Location: | Brno (Brno) |
| Appointment: | 2001 |
| Meaning: | Exceptional example of the international architectural style of the 1920s in Europe |
Tugendhat House in Brno: history
| 1886-1969 | Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, architect |
| 1908-1911 | Mies van der Rohe employee of Peter Behrens |
| September 1928 | Visit of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in Brno |
| 1928-1930 | Construction of the villa |
| 1929 | German Pavilion at the International Exhibition in Barcelona |
| 1930-1933 | Mies van der Rohe last director of the Bauhaus in Dessau |
| 1937 | Emigration of the Tugendhat family |
| 1938 | Villa nationalized as “abandoned Jewish property” |
| 1939-1945 | Villa Seat of the design office of the aircraft manufacturer Willy Messerschmitt |
| 1994 | Opening of the Villa Tugendhat Museum |
| 1999 | Repair of the building |
| 2004 | Color studies of the facade |
With a sense of the “international style” – Tugendhat House in Brno
It was not just his work at the Bauhaus in Dessau that made Ludwig Mies van der Rohe a household name in this country – it was also the Weißenhofsiedlung in Stuttgart and the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin that, due to the surrounding glass surfaces, made the area around the Kulturforum in their own Absorbs inside. The architect is also responsible for other architectural milestones such as the Seagram Building in New York, not to mention Haus Tugendhat. This private villa has largely been preserved in its original form. During the construction, Mies van der Rohe was able to implement all of his principles: simplicity of construction, clarity of the tectonic means, purity of the material used.
The domicile of the wealthy textile manufacturer couple Tugendhat came into being when Brno was already a center of the architectural avant-garde, which, however, was mainly concerned with social housing. Mies van der Rohe, on the other hand – like Victor Horta decades earlier in Brussels – set himself the task of designing villas for the upper class. The three-storey, “stepped” Tugendhat House is elongated and, due to the terraces, the overhanging roofs and the protruding stairs, pushes into the green of the surroundings. Recent color studies of the facade have undoubtedly shown that the house was not whitewashed as it is today, but painted stone-colored and therefore only a little lighter than the travertine stone. If his German pavilion in Barcelona was still a temporary building, Mies van der Rohe was able to realize not only a steel frame construction with the Tugendhat house, but also the idea of an »open space«. This was in the spirit of the builder Grete Tugendhat: »I have always wanted a spacious, modern house with clear, simple shapes. And my husband was downright appalled by the rooms that were crammed to the ceiling with figurines and decorative ceilings. ”
Across the street, the Tugendhat house appears repellent. The upper floor, which can be reached from here, opens to the south with a terrace and offers a view of the old town of Brno. The bedrooms, bathrooms and ancillary rooms were on the upper floor. The lower floor was reserved for living, while the utility rooms were housed in the basement.
The hillside location of the house meant that one did not go up to the bel étage in this house, but down. Here was the main room with its four functional areas – music room, library, salon and dining room. These were not separated from each other by closed, but free-standing walls and by chrome supports. With this concept, Mies van der Rohe finally said goodbye to the classic room structure.
Mies van der Rohe designed a south-facing, continuous glass front for the house, which almost opens into the garden. The large glass windows, which can be completely sunk into the floor, also allow the interior and exterior to “merge” with one another. Light brown, black veined ebony, milky white veined, orange-red shimmering onyx, dark, reddish rosewood and sand-colored travertine, which were built into the interior for the room dividers, the doors, stairs and floors, indicate that the builders are interested in “sublime living” in were interested in the newly created villa district Schwarzfeld. Decorative interventions by the Tugendhat couple were not planned, not even the hanging of paintings.
