A few shots from a recent visit to Mies Van Der Rohes impressive Villa Tugendhat. The interior shots are a bit sketchy due to photography being banned inside- so spent time trying to avoid detection!
Also observe the amount of snow outside- and it was about minus 10 too.

Address- VILA TUGENDHAT
?ernopolní 45, 613 00 Brno
phone/fax: +420 545 212 118; +420 545 216 781

Transport- we got a taxi, looks like trams are possible, but we were running late for our booking so had to get there quick.

Tram connection
(3, 5, 11 - stop "D?tská nemocnice" - Children's Hospital)


Its located amoungst some other really dull roads, and I really didnt expect to find such an impressive house amoungst such rubbish.

Opening hours- must be open most of the year. We were there in early January, and if it was open at that time of the year, it cant shut for too long. The opening hours are Wednesday to Sunday 10AM-6PM.

We had to book- think its tours every 45mins, and so you need to find someone to book in czech for you over the phone! It was good value though- for me as a student it was 40 CZK, thats about 1 english pound.

You also get to wear some funky looking shoe covers.

View from across the road

Interior

A barcelona chair

The front entrance. On the right is the entrance to the servants quarters. Just visable on the left is the main entrance- the front door is cunningly hidden from the road to give privacy to the owner.

Welcome to pushpullbar, alastaircrockett.
Can you tell us a bit about your impression of this masterpiece? :wondering

travel forum material this....
i just can't believe when you try to avoid detection and you use a flash!

Thanks Takesh h for the welcome. Im new to the site, but having been using Sketchup for a few years, so its the natural progression to end up here!
Hahaha Swank-e- youve realised the very moment that i got caught and the camera had to be put away.

Every Mies building is beautifully simple in its execution, and this was no exception. The classic criciform columns and orthagonal walls are in place and the Mies furniture is all in place.
Mies' use of columns allows you to see the floor and ceiling as 2 separate elements, with the occupiable void in between.
Was surprised by the dining area, that is surrounded by a curving wooden screen- keep to the planar walls Mies!
Unfortunately not allowed to fully explore the house, only allowed in 2 bedrooms, the living room area, kitchen and hallways. Also you get a limited time visit- about 30 mins, so make sure you hurry round or you'll miss bits.

could you please share with us some travel information about the Villa Tugendhat in Brno?

Address, Opening hours, How to get there (by public transport if possible)?

This is weird, up to a few minutes I was doing a research paper on this same villa. Those pictures might come handy, and if you have some more to share they will be extremely welcome.
Now it's odd that they placed barcelona chairs inside the Tugendhat villa, since Mies designed some chairs for this particular house and they're even available by Knoll.
I also find really weird that poorly placed downpipe in the access area, not up to the Mies finishing standards.
Anyways thank you very much for this pictures and welcome to the forum!

since Mies designed some chairs for this particular house and they're even available by Knoll.

It's called the Brno Chair

oops, I forgot to attach the picture

Glad to hear people are enjoying the photos- Ive got a few more, but none are fantastic due to the rushed nature of the visit.
cacapis- if you want some more exterior shots, let us know, otherwise check the official website-
http://www.tugendhat-villa.cz/
Its pretty good with information.


Swank-e you wanted some more information- also check the website, but I'll sum up a bit of it for you here now.
address- VILA TUGENDHAT
Černopolní 45, 613 00 Brno
phone/fax: +420 545 212 118; +420 545 216 781

In terms of transport- we got a taxi, looks like trams are possible, but we were running late for our booking so had to get there quick.

Tram connection
(3, 5, 11 - stop "Dětská nemocnice" - Children's Hospital)


Its located amoungst some other really dull roads, and I really didnt expect to find such an impressive house amoungst such rubbish.

Opening hours- must be open most of the year. We were there in early January, and if it was open at that time of the year, it cant shut for too long. The opening hours are Wednesday to Sunday 10AM-6PM.

We had to book- think its tours every 45mins, and so you need to find someone to book in czech for you over the phone! It was good value though- for me as a student it was 40 CZK, thats about 1 english pound.

You also get to wear some funky looking shoe covers.

I hope this of use to you, and I look forward to interesting architecture/ sketchup talk to come in this forum.

I also find really weird that poorly placed downpipe in the access area, not up to the Mies finishing standards.
And this is a world heritage (http://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31&id_site=1052). Man, talk about preservation.
Regarding travel infomation and other things, you can steal info from their official website (http://www.tugendhat-villa.cz/) and paste it here, I'm sure you have also visited it before.

i've already been to villa tugendhat twice, last time some 2-3 years ago and I can recall several issues that struck me during both visits:
firstly - its size - i'm not sure about the total floor area but it must be about 2000 m2 as the dining-living area on its own has 360 m2 - which is e.g. 8 times the size of the flat I live in with my girlfriend.
but it's not just the floor area. everything is huge there. all the doors must be some 2.5 - 2.8m high. for someone used to standard heights around 2 meters this is really hard to accept but after a few moments of shock one gets used to it.
one of the first spaces you explore during the guided tour are the bedrooms. they stand in a strong contrast to the spatial and material generosity of the rest of the house- they are quite small, the walls simply rendered and painted white. no great view no expensive materials, just pure austerity or even ascetism.

then there's this onyx wall that separates 2 parts of the great fluid space. i just regret that i've never been able to come there in the right time of the day - around sunset when they say the stone starts to glow...

another chapter are the late 20's technical miracles incorporated in the house as central heating or even some sort of air conditioning but especially the big sliding glazed wall - yes a great part of the front window visible in the typical views of the villa from the garden can slide down to the floor. they say the machines which allow this still work perfectly but i think that the staff is afraid of trying it... possibly noone has done it for last 70 years.

if it goes for the round dining area, I find it as a perfect well-working confirmation of the open plan principle's flexibility. it's clearly seen in the plans as well. the round table is a replica and one notices that a bad one - there are bubbles on the veneer surface already.
there's an important historical moment tied to this dining table (or its replica): in 1992 the officials of former czechoslovakia singned here the agreement with the separation of the country in 2 independent countries - czechia and slovakia.

and lastly = mentioning the world heritage. to be honest the villa is definitly not in its best condition. it's has witnessed strange things happening inside after the tugendhats emigrated to switzerland in the 30's - it remained abandoned for several years, and some furniture was stolen during that period. after the WW2 the red army used it as an accomodation facility for its soldiers and they even had stables down in the living area - yes - there were horses running through the house on the travertine floors!!! which might sound barbarian - but there's some sort of perverted beauty in that image..... a link to barragán....
later the house was reconstructed and served as some kind of kindergarten.
and now it's just a museum of itself and it waits impatiently until enough funding is gathered to make a radical and detailed reconstruction and recollection of the original furnishing if available. they managed to do this quite well with the villa müller (http://www.mullerovavila.cz/) by a. loos in prague.

well, that's all I can remember...

Thanks dhaa for providing all that information- a lot of it I was not aware of, so most interesting to find it out- especially the stables part. Did you get this information at the villa, or have you read up since? As I do not speak czech, I could not take the guided tour, so missed out on some of the history that would have been good to hear.

Thanks for the information dhaa. It's not an uncommon problem for this type of houses. Here in my city we're lucky that the architects association bought the Curutchet house (http://www.pushpullbar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=112) and uses it, because otherwise it would be abandoned like the Bridge House (http://www.pushpullbar.com/forums/showpost.php?p=17862&postcount=7) in Mar del Plata.
The Tugendhat house seems to be in a decent condition anyways.
Nevertheless it would be really nice to see the windows down. You can't find that anywhere.

here the kmz from archinform... low res, but with street names and house plans and old pictures.

I thought the shots where good. What was more intersting is that they seem more like tourist shots. I am not trying to insult - I am just referring to the way people visualize a building. It may be because you were in a rush...if you see when other people have posted projects on this site they are very influenced by composition, detailing, procession, and so on. The shots to me are less architectural and more "forced"...time I am sure was the bandit :D



Thanks for sharing. I have studied this, but haven't seen pictures for real...

Welcome to the forum

well there's some hi-res documentation here:
2nd (entrance) floor plan (http://www.spsstavbrno.cz/Socrates/html/photos/vila_tugendhat_project_doc_2.jpg)
1st floor plan (http://www.spsstavbrno.cz/Socrates/html/photos/vila_tugendhat_project_doc_3.jpg)
elevation north (http://www.spsstavbrno.cz/Socrates/html/photos/vila_tugendhat_project_doc_4.jpg)
elevation west (http://www.spsstavbrno.cz/Socrates/html/photos/vila_tugendhat_project_doc_5.jpg)
elevation south (http://www.spsstavbrno.cz/Socrates/html/photos/vila_tugendhat_project_doc_1.jpg)
elevation west (http://www.spsstavbrno.cz/Socrates/html/photos/vila_tugendhat_project_doc_6.jpg)
axonometry (http://www.spsstavbrno.cz/Socrates/html/photos/vila_tugendhat_project_doc_7.jpg)

Thanks dhaa for providing all that information- a lot of it I was not aware of, so most interesting to find it out- especially the stables part. Did you get this information at the villa, or have you read up since? As I do not speak czech, I could not take the guided tour, so missed out on some of the history that would have been good to hear.
yes some facts I remember from the visits, some from school and some can be googled - mostly in czech though. but it's right that the stables part is nothing the staff would be proud of - especially they wouldn't feel like sharing that information with a group of foreigners;)) unless you ask of course. and in those brilliant books they sell in the garage you only find plans, beautiful photos, and probably some historical ones with the tugendhats dining or so, but nothing about the darker periods...

but you can even listen to a commentary about the villa's history in english here: http://radio.cz/en/article/11206

Thanks, dhaa. The information is invaluable.
another chapter are the late 20's technical miracles incorporated in the house as central heating or even some sort of air conditioning but especially the big sliding glazed wall - yes a great part of the front window visible in the typical views of the villa from the garden can slide down to the floor. they say the machines which allow this still work perfectly but i think that the staff is afraid of trying it... possibly noone has done it for last 70 years.
The last year a Japanese Television made an extensive report of this architecture and in that program, they showed the sliding glazed walls in operation. It was a sight. So they ARE in good condition after all.

About horses running around in the house- No, I would say that is more like Tarkovsky. ;)

I've started building a 3D model of the house and your images have been helpful in filling in a few holes. :cheers:

well there's some hi-res documentation here:
2nd (entrance) floor plan (http://www.spsstavbrno.cz/Socrates/html/photos/vila_tugendhat_project_doc_2.jpg)
1st floor plan (http://www.spsstavbrno.cz/Socrates/html/photos/vila_tugendhat_project_doc_3.jpg)
elevation north (http://www.spsstavbrno.cz/Socrates/html/photos/vila_tugendhat_project_doc_4.jpg)
elevation west (http://www.spsstavbrno.cz/Socrates/html/photos/vila_tugendhat_project_doc_5.jpg)
elevation south (http://www.spsstavbrno.cz/Socrates/html/photos/vila_tugendhat_project_doc_1.jpg)
elevation west (http://www.spsstavbrno.cz/Socrates/html/photos/vila_tugendhat_project_doc_6.jpg)
axonometry (http://www.spsstavbrno.cz/Socrates/html/photos/vila_tugendhat_project_doc_7.jpg)

After comparing the drawing in this link with those that come with 'Key Buildings of the Twentieth Century' I'm going to use the link drawings. The dxf's that come with the book are way out when compared with the measurements shown on the link plans - I guess they are pretty accurate? :wondering
This is part of the model I'm building - WIP so no work of art.

entering the building- one of the first impressions inside. Pic shows the stair down to the level under the development area( -you develop the building on the hill height- like the first pic of the colleague also shows). The buildngs on a slope.

on the "upper floor"- the "entrance floor"- the doors inside are really high up to the room height.

inside detail: flexible part of the room

installed cupboard- and roomview

door detail.

to inspect the window details- everyone who`s there should inspect the building in nearer detail...it was not a cheap building at its building time(check the costs)...

the bathroom- modernism style.

light inside the bathroom by this upper window

down the stairs- the main space

Glass windows to the side down to the hill- the glass windows can be put down vertically to earth> the room can be opened to a nearly whole side( see also SU model "Villa Tugendhat)

inside detail: air condition...

"integrated in wall"- room heating system

the meal etc. lift to the main space

in a room there`s information about Mies, the building and this model of it.

The side in front is the side down the hill (details for SU model check comparison:))

the not garage side is now in front view

close up: side view

on last pic you could see the house and its context to the slope.

//special view.

The Brno chair, the typical Mies column, wood- cupboard again "in wall integrated", the floor, the lamps

the not very energy efficient and economic glass. the green of the "winter garden". again- the same lamp as on the upper floor. The curtain gliding system. The buildingphysics heating of the glass area inside.

table composition. pic shows also table details. the Mies walls, the mentioned chromatic steel columns

room and statue. Mies and his statues(mindlink: Barcelona Pav.)

furniture composition. white leather, milky glass, white of the floor

another furniture composition> for those interested in furniture.
also: view on used materials inside

detail: as mentioned the glass front can be put down vertically.

view glass front.special detail view.

furniture backside closeup. connection detail as whole part

opened-

outside along the glass

the stair to the park

the building from park side.

building defects over the years> at the garage side on the "under level"

VILA TUGENDHAT
Ludvig Mies Van Der Rohe

Černopolní 45,
613 00 Brno
phone/fax: +420 545 212 118

e-mail: tugendhat-villa@tugendhat-villa.cz
www.tugendhat-villa.cz

Being a former easter europe / Soviet Union country, you're gonna have to book in advance your "tour" of the house" no matter if the tour commencing in 10 minutes only has 2 people on it, if your name isn't on the list then it's commencing without you. So BOOK in advance.

Tram connection
(3, 5, 11 - stop "Dětská nemocnice" - Children's Hospital)

Tugendhat Villa, built for Fritz Tugendhat and his wive, a must SEE.

front of the building, can't recommend you jumping the fence as there is an old man lurking somewhere watching you, just waiting to catch you in the act.

entrance.

main entrance.

threads merged

this is the back of the house, below you see the exit from the garden and the entrance of the service staff.

just realized that my thread got merged, stupid me not to check if anyone posted this before me!
So when the tour starts they lead you to the back entrance, which has a view of the garden and the city below.

back entrance from one of the sleeping rooms.

closet in one of the sleeping rooms, please notice that photographing is strictly forbidden and I had to sneek my Canon 400D into the house and it was no easy task to "wander" off and take pictures. Plus I didn't realize that my girlfriend had set the lens to manual focus so excuse the "out of focus" pictures.

door of the bedroom.

lighting fixture

window.

now moving up to the lower floor!! (see johannezum's pictures for the awsome stair between the floors)

the onyx wall
-man it's out of focus

the circular room as seen from the onyx wall.

the greenhouse (next to the onyx room/library)

the area in front of the onyx room, living room with a view of the garden.

the view of the garden.

entrance onto the lower floor.

view into the circular/oval room

more of the circular/oval room

detail, ceiling

detail, floor

view into the living area from the circular/oval room

the outdoor area, I'll leave it with this as others have documented this house before me. If anyone needs something special, I'll be more than happy to try and locate it in my vast collection of pictures of this house.

I'm going to build a model of tugendhat Villa. I studied the house and posts about it here. I need measured Plans, Elevations, Sections and etc. I'll be thankful if anyone that has these kinds of stuff about the house sends me anything that thinks might be helpful.
My E-Mail address is: sbmojabi@gmail.com
Thanks