The repair of the Tugendhat villa will become more expensive due to the fidelity of the details

Brno - The preservation renewal of the precious Brno Tugendhat villa will apparently be much more expensive than expected. Brno city councilors are concerned that they will have to release up to 200 million crowns from the city budget compared to the originally planned 112 million. According to Deputy Mayor Miroslav Hošek, the cost is driven up by the overly strict approach of heritage conservationists to the restoration of the building listed on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Heritage conservators argue that there is no other option, otherwise the villa could lose its exclusive status.
"I think we are getting into completely absurd details. The function and importance of the villa are not enhanced by the level of detail. It is just a way of extracting money from the Brno treasury," Hošek told journalists today. As an example, he mentioned the planned handmade production of hardware, sinks, and other furniture parts exactly according to the original plans and from original materials. Many products must be made by craftsmen abroad, for example, in Italy.
Petr Kroupa, director of the Brno office of the National Heritage Institute, disagrees with the city's reservations toward the heritage conservators. "The villa is a UNESCO monument, where the so-called conservation method is required, which involves precise restoration down to all the details," Kroupa told ČTK today. It is said to be an unequivocal condition of UNESCO.
According to Iveta Černá from the Museum of the City of Brno, which manages the villa, the time for precise cost estimates for the restoration has not yet come. "The project for the implementation of the construction is still not completed," she told ČTK. However, she admits that costs may increase. The original estimates are several years old - reconstruction was supposed to start in 2001 - and since then construction costs have significantly risen. The city had previously announced a tender for the company or companies that will carry out the heritage restoration.
The Tugendhat villa in Brno's Černá Pole district was designed in 1928 by the world-renowned German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The building is unique in its spatial concept, choice of materials, and interior design. It attracted great attention even at the time of its creation. "It was like a UFO that landed in Brno; it was worth hundreds of villas," says architect Tomáš Rusín, who is involved in the preparation of the reconstruction. After a series of vicissitudes and uses for various purposes, the unique building finally received recognition - it was listed as a UNESCO site in 2001.
The building attracts extraordinary interest from tourists, although it is currently not in the best condition. Most of the original furnishings are irretrievably lost. The Museum of the City of Brno keeps the only original chair from the villa, and the Moravian Gallery manages another four pieces of furniture. The Tugendhat family took part of the furnishings with them into exile. "But it is hard to ask them to provide us with these things," said Pavel Ciprian, director of the Museum of the City of Brno, recently.