Ninety years ago, the construction of the Tugendhat villa began

Prague - A business card of the Brno functionalist Tugendhat Villa, whose construction began 90 years ago, on June 1, 1929:

Architectural style: The villa is one of the unique examples of interwar functionalist architecture. It is often referred to as a structure that set new standards for modern living and is considered one of the foundational works of modern architecture worldwide.

Project and creator: The villa was designed in 1928 by the prominent German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886 to 1969), who is regarded as the father of 20th-century modern architecture. Construction began on a gently sloping site in Brno - Černá Pole in June 1929. The owners moved in December 1930.

Revolutionary design: The building is famous primarily for its glazed main living space with a winter garden, only suggestively divided by free-standing walls. The architect breathed life into his idea of a habitable continuous space, with the surrounding environment entering the house through glass walls. Some windows could be completely lowered to the floor, allowing for an even more impressive merging of the interior with nature in the garden. The building also featured original furnishings, including solutions for bathrooms, toilets, and heating elements.

The structure is externally unassuming, with only the garage facing the street. The main living space, which is only suggestively divided according to the architect's design, opens to the garden. The villa was built on a site that slopes south, offering its residents a unique view of Brno. At street level, Mies designed not only the entrance to the house but also bedrooms for the couple, children, and governesses; the basement housed the technical facilities of the house, including the laboratory of passionate photographer Fritz Tugendhat. The most important part of the villa, a vast living space covering almost 250 square meters, is located in the center.

Construction: The free-standing house has three floors, each with a different floor plan and facade. The building consists of a steel frame, and the ceilings of the floors are supported not by walls but only by slender chrome pillars.

Original owner: The villa was commissioned by the owner of a Brno textile company, Fritz Tugendhat (1895 to 1958). His family lived there for only eight years, until 1938. Fearing the Nazis, they emigrated to Switzerland and later to Venezuela.

Future of the building: During the war, the building was occupied by the Germans. It was variously rented out, remodeled, but also devastated by soldiers. After the war, it served various purposes, including healthcare. In the early 1980s, it came into the possession of the city of Brno and began to be used for representation and accommodation of guests. In the 1980s, the villa was reconstructed, which experts considered not very fortunate. Among other things, it lost many elements of its original furnishings. From 2010 to 2012, the villa underwent a sensitive reconstruction. During the demanding restoration, aimed at returning the house to its original state using original technologies, restorers discovered many original elements. Significant findings include part of the original semicircular makassar (ebony) wall, which bordered the dining room, and which has already been found in the canteen of the Brno Faculty of Law.

Others:

- The villa entered public awareness primarily in 1992 when the then Czech and Slovak prime ministers Václav Klaus and Vladimír Mečiar signed an agreement on the dissolution of the Czechoslovak federation within its walls.

- The unique functionalist building has been a national cultural monument since the mid-1990s, and in 2001, the villa was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list as the only modern architectural monument in the Czech Republic.

- In a domestic expert poll for the best building of the 20th century, the Tugendhat villa ranked second, surpassed only by the transmitter and hotel on Ještěd by architect Karel Hubáček.

- The villa is visited by around 30,000 people each year.

- In March of this year, the film Glass Room directed by Julius Ševčík, filmed in the Tugendhat villa, premiered. The film is inspired by the dramatic events of the 20th century and the creation of the architectural gem.