Villa Tugendhat
The Villa Tugendhat is a 1929 to 1930 in Brno ( Czech Republic), designed by architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe built dwelling- house for the business couple Fritz and Grete Tugendhat, the parents of the German philosopher Ernst Tugendhat and the art historian Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat. The building is considered to be the most famous monument of modernity from Brno and was built simultaneously with Mies ' Barcelona Pavilion. The villa is counted among the most important buildings by Mies van der Rohe in Europe and is considered a landmark of modern architecture. It joins its importance next to " crown jewels " of modernity, such as Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye, Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House and the Schminke House by Hans Scharoun one.
Topography
The villa is located across a slope on the black box ( Cerna pole ) in the north of Brno ( address: Černopolní No. 45). From the street the building appears as unspectacular, single-storey pavilion, while it opens to the steeply sloping garden with a huge window front. Two elements of this front can be fully sink. The 2,000 m², this property offers the hillside and the talwärtige orientation of the building to the south a panorama like view on the Brno's historical center.
By the application of side yard areas that were cut from the hillside, Mies was able to frame the house and to anchor on the mountain. The terraced landscapes dramatize this follows the natural slope architecturally.
The wide terraces on the upper floor, the projections of the roof and front- stairs to the garden seem to leave the house elongated push in the landscape literally. In the living area of the basement the space opens through large, on the corner glazed exterior walls to the south and east. The elevated position requires doing a framing focus the field of view, reinforced by the frame elements of the floor to ceiling glass panels and each flanking supports, creating a distancing of the building is accessed from the landscape. The running in front of the windows railing was not foreseen in the original plan, but was not added in the 30s. The indirect connection to the garden takes place gradually over a dining area front terrace with garden staircase.
Composition, layout and function
The Hangbau was planned as a three-story steel-frame construction ( a novelty at that time in housing ). Due to the spatial composition of unconnected rectangular wall panels and one of them freely dissolved bracing system of the client was able to define its spatial relations and functions ( at least in the framework of the given column spacing ) itself. The open floor plan allowed it a free flow of space and is quite close to the designed in the same year Barcelona Pavilion. Construction and wall were doing strictly separate and should allow a "free" groupable floor plan, although the space program with the waiting lounge for visitors, the delimitation of economic zones as well as the wing for the staff formally a state of upper middle-class ideals and manners of the 19th century represents.
The structure separates private and public living areas rather by different spatial configurations as well as by the arrangement in each storey floors. The bedrooms and the bathrooms arrange themselves in the upper input level. With a cell-like, closed structure, these spaces are places of retreat for the residents and close to the entrance area, which is also located by the strong slope in the floor, from. A spiral staircase on the access level you get into the main room, a large open living area, and (along with winter garden an area of approximately 280 square meters ), the two sides by floor to ceiling glass panels completely opens up to the outside space, filling about two-thirds of the basement is shielded only by a glass door against drafts and noise from above. The living room whose dimensions are of any point of the room completely detectable, is laid out as a large, open, free-flowing area that bordered on three sides -to-ceiling glass and in four or five different, smaller room areas by suggestion of a wall screen, curtains or a free-standing cabinet member is divided (the modern room divider ). The dining area, the work area, the booths and the living area are defined only by the free-standing elements (room -in-room effect).
The generous glazing integrates the exterior with its trees and lawns to a kind of scenic wallpaper that is perceived here as a visual boundary of the interior. Then the sinking of almost five meters long glass elements, there is a complete fusion of indoor and outdoor use. For this reason, Mies used indoors only pale and muted colors ( marble, wood, silk, leather ) or White and Black, with its various nuances to counteract the ever-changing colors of nature.
Materials, details and furnishings
The interaction of different precious materials and high-quality execution of details gives the house its special expression. As in the Barcelona Pavilion form cross-shaped, arranged at regular intervals and disguised with chromed sheet steel supports the constructive system. The free-standing wall of precious onyx, however, has no static function, but serves the structure of the separation of work and reading area from the living area.
Static viewpoint, the same for the semi-circular curved, also floor to ceiling wall of Macassar ebony, the dining area is enclosed applies. When Onyx the wall is from Morocco coming, so-called ' loggerhead Onyx '. The color goes from milky white veined to orange to orange-red. The stone is translucent and iridescent when hitting the sun's rays - this unplanned effect is to Mies van have very pleased when visiting the under construction Villa der Rohe. The veneer of the wooden screen panel of the dining area was made of ebony | made Makassar. This hard, heavy tropical wood has with its red-brown color and wide, almost black veins a very deep, quiet drawing. The floor to ceiling doors, a large part of the built-in furniture (cabinets, shelves ), and desks were made of rosewood, a precious, dark - reddish- brown hardwood; some floors, stairs and window sills made of travertine. The curtains are made of black and beige shantung.
The floor of the main room was designed with ivory- white linoleum. the living area by a square, berber -like carpet made of natural wool, made by the Lübeck Workshop Alen Müller- Hellwig, limited. One placed on a pedestal bust of Wilhelm Lehmbruck served as a staged view point. The living area of the main room was furnished with two Barcelona chairs, a Barcelona stool and two designed for construction, free-floating flat steel chairs and a formally simple, white-painted wooden bench. Another classic has its origin here: a glass table with chrome, cross-shaped frame made of flat steel and a layer, square glass plate. The semi -circular wall of Macassar wood was considered as disappeared since 1940 and was reconstructed in the 1980s - in 2011, the original veneer plates were rediscovered in the cafeteria of the University of Brno. They were here in a former German officers' mess as a wall covering. Meanwhile, the wall has a second time, this time by using the original plates, reconstructed.
Living room with onyx wall.
Living room, overlooking the city, left the onyx wall.
History
The house was of the Brno textile industrialist Fritz Tugendhat and his wife Grete (1903-1970) given in Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in order. Grete Tugendhat, divorced white, born Löw- Beer, had received the large property on the occasion of their wedding in 1928 by her parents, the long-established industrial family Löw- Beer, a gift. End of December 1928 Mies put the couple the first drafts.
"I 've always wanted a spacious, modern hotel with clear simple shapes. And my husband was horrified of rooms that were crammed to the ceiling with figurines and decorative ceilings. " Grete Tugendhat later founded the architects choice. However, it would have been sufficient a much smaller house.
"It was a rare case of full agreement between the client and the architect. " Said the daughter of the owner, who lives in Vienna art historian Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat. The cost of the huge house with 1,250 square meters of floor were enormous. Just for the price of onyx wall would have been able to build an entire family house at the time.
In 1938, the Sudetenland was annexed by the German Reich and therefore the Jewish family Tugendhat met in the same year which is important for their survival decision to leave Czechoslovakia because the stay was likely to be dangerous for them. 1939 Brno was occupied by the Nazi regime and was until 1945 the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. On 4 October 1939 the house for the needs of the Gestapo was formally seized and in 1942 registered as the property of the Greater German Reich. It was temporarily inhabited by aircraft designer Willy Messerschmitt and used with fitted solid partition walls as a design office. After the invasion of the Red Army to Soviet soldiers have oxen roasted on an open fire in front of the famous Onyx wall and have used as a horse stable the rooms. Czech authorities transformed the vacant and easily damaged house later in the orthopedic department of the adjacent children's hospital. The legendary living room with a panoramic view of the garden and over the whole city was a gym, gymnastic equipment were mounted along the walls.
In the 1960s, part of the Brno cultural scene for a worthy use began to use this extraordinary Baudenkmales, in particular for its opening to visitors. At the same goal is also a strong initiative of the architect František Kalivoda who tried to enforce a historic preservation restoration of the Villa in the late 1960s taught. His efforts have been partially fulfilled only in the first half of the 1980s, when the building was put back into operation as a representation space. After the reconstruction carried out at that time, however, many original parts were lost: Almost all wooden fittings were renewed and replaced all the furniture; the bathrooms are almost entirely not in original condition. Although many personalities of Brno Cultural demanded a change in use of the villa just after November 1989, it succeeded only partially in 1994.
In 1992, the summit was held at the Villa Tugendhat, in which the contract for the division of Czechoslovakia was signed. By a decision of the Brno City Council, the villa the Brno City Museum was handed over to use and made from 1 July 1994 as a monument of modern architecture in Brno to the public. Because of his extraordinary artistic value, the Tugendhat House was declared in August 1995 to a national cultural monument. Efforts, the House refund the rightful owners were not undertaken.
The Villa Tugendhat was in 2001 in the UNESCO World Heritage List as a monument of modern architecture. The heirs requested in 2007 the restoration of the building. 2010, the city of Brno 6 million euros for the restoration are available. After completion of the restoration work, the Villa on 6 March 2012 was made available to the public.
On 9 March 2001, an asteroid of the outer main belt is named after the Villa ( 8343 ) Tugendhat.
In the movie Hannibal Rising - How it all began in 2007, the Villa Tugendhat was used for some scenes as a film location.
On 30 May 2013, the documentary feature film Tugendhat House is underway in Germany.