The Villa Tugendhat - Brno's UNESCO Site

Mies found a kindred spirit in Grete Tugendhat. The daughter of a Jewish industrialist family, the Löw-Beers, Grete wanted “a modern spacious house with clear and simple lines.” When she married Fritz Tugendhat, who was also Jewish, her father, Alfred, gave them the block of land on which the house now stands. The location is important because the view from the block was one of the reasons Mies accepted the commission. Grete’s father apparently didn’t approve of the initial designs, though he financed the construction, which began in 1928. The house was completed two years later and Grete and Fritz, along with Grete’s daughter from her first marriage, moved in.

His revolutionary approach started with the support. Twenty-nine steel columns hold up the house. This frame eliminates the need for load-bearing walls in the living area, so it is open, light, and spacious. The columns, still in their original stainless steel casings – now polished to a mirror shine, also form part of the interior decor.

Another break with earlier styles was an emphasis on the space itself over excessive ornamentation. The famous onyx wall, which divides the living space into a sitting area and a library, is the central feature. When the sun sets, the onyx catches the fading light and appears to flare up red in parts, a detail which Mies discovered by accident. The intricately-grained Makassar ebony used for the bookshelves and dining room partition is a further example of how the beauty of materials was favored over decorative art. (Though truth be told, the Tugendhats had a sculpture of a female torso in the living space and a painting of Alfred Löw-Beer in one of the bedrooms.)

The Tugendhats’ comfort was further ensured by an air-conditioning system, again another first for a family home. The ventilation, which is unobtrusively incorporated into the walls, is controlled down in the cellar by a system of switches, allowing the occupants to control the temperature in different parts of the house.

An additional degree of comfort was ensured by the air filtration system. The air passed through a steel mesh, which constantly moved through a bath of oil, so to remove dust and pollen. The air then flowed through cedar wood chips to freshen it.

It was through these humanitarian activities that the Tugendhats became certain life for Jewish people would become more difficult in central Europe. After Germany’s annexation of Austria in 1938, the Tugendhats predicted rightly that Nazi expansion would continue and so decided to abandon the home. Because they left early, they were able to take many of their possessions, including some of the furniture.

After the occupation in 1939, the Nazis used the abandoned house as a headquarters for the Gestapo. One of the major changes these new occupants made was to remove the rounded Makassar ebony panels, which partitioned off the dining area. The panels were only found later in the canteen of the Masaryk University Law School. Later, Wilhem Messrschmitt, the German aircraft designer, lived here.

Following the defeat of the Nazis and arrival of the Red Army, the house served as a barracks for a soviet cavalry division. The soldiers even kept their horses inside. From 1945 to 1950, it was a school for rhythmic gymnastics; then, when it became state property, an institute for treating children with spinal problems. It seemed that the new owners took the notion of functionalism a little too literally.

The building’s fate improved in 1969, when it was registered as a national historical landmark. Attempts from this time were made to restore it, but they were criticized for not maintaining the principles of the original. For example, the glass used was of a lower, less lustrous quality, and instead of using single panes, two panes were joined together for the large windows.

In 2001, the villa became a UNESCO cultural landmark, making restoration work a necessity.

Painstaking care and attention was given to the plaster work. Again, the same plaster as was used in the house the first time was used in the restoration. The restorers even went so far as recreating the plastering styles of the different plasterers and maintaining the characteristic flaws in the original work.

Of course given the building’s history, quite a number of fixtures had to be replaced. The glass of the massive windows is not the original, but it was produced to be of top quality, so to be in line with Mies’ philosophy. The furniture also had to be replaced, though again the pieces retain the original design principles of the former items.

The restoration work was carried out under the auspices of the Tugendhat House International Committee (THICOM). The chair of THICOM is Ivo Hammer, husband of Daniela Tugendhat-Hammer, one of surviving daughters of Grete and Fritz. Mrs. Hammer-Tugendat was present at the opening along with her husband. So too was her older sister, Ruth Guggenherim-Tugendhatová. At the opening, Mrs. Guggenherim-Tugendhat said, “It must be clear to everyone, who looks around the villa, why our parents were so proud of the house.”

The total cost of the restoration came to 173.6 million CZK.

If you’re coming from the main train station, you can take trams, 4, 12 and 13, to the stop Česká, where you can take the trams 3, 5 or 7 to the villa. However, to make things interesting there are two pairs of stops called Česká, one on Česká Street outside the Constitutional Court (Ústavní soud) and the other around the corner on Joštova Street. Trams 12 and 13 will take you to the stop outside the court, where you can then catch the number 3 tram. Tram 4 will take you to the stop on Joštova where you can then catch trams 5 and 7.

If you intend to visit the restored villa, or saw it before, please let us know what you think.

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