Tugendhat Villa

1. Tugendhat Villa in Brno(UNESCO/NHK) -3:00 -

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmtKiBH02dk)

1) When was the building completed?

2) Which materials were used for the structure and other parts of the building?
3) How did Mies van der Rohe treat the inner and outer space?
4) How did he treat the main living area?
5) What can we say about furniture in the villa?
6) Which technical innovations were used in the house?
7) Which special effect in the interior was mentioned?
8) How long did the Tugendhats use this villa?

2. Characterize the features which are typical for functionalism:

Tugendhat Villa
1) What the villa Savoye represents in the work of Le Corbusier, the Tugendhat house in Brno
represents for Mies van der Rohe(1886 – 1969). This house shows how Mies’s innovative principles,
formerly used in Barcelona pavilion, were accommodated to the complex functions of dwelling.
2) The house was built on a sloping site, with its entrance on the level of the upper floor,
which contains the bedrooms. A staircase leads down to the living room which is connected with the
garden by means of a terrace and a wide flight of stairs. The layout is complex and in important
respects what is supposed to be Mies’s ideal: a simple rectangular glass box placed on a horizontal
podium. The Tugendhat House has therefore been characterized as a “compromise”, but this
judgement is unacceptable. Instead the house should be considered a particularly rich exercise in
spatial articulation, which illustrates the possibilities inherent in Mies‘s method.
 3) From the street the house appears as a low horizontally extended building. Basically the
upper floor consists of three, spatially separate volumes. One contains the owner’s bedrooms, one
children’s rooms, and one the garage and driver’s flat. The volumes are treated as boxes, with
windows placed like holes in the walls, expressing the relatively enclosed and private character of the
functions they contain. They are adjacent, however, in such a way that they overlap and indicate a
fluid space between them. The boxes therefore have a spatial function analogous to that of the
freestanding walls in the Barcelona Pavilion, only here the walls have become thick and hollow. In the
Tugendhat House the space between the boxes leads from the entrance to a terrace. It is half covered
by a roof which connects the boxes, and which partially rests on steel columns which represent a
continuation of the structural system of the main floor. To enter the house, one has to go along a
curved glass wall, which causes outside and inside space to fuse at the point where they are
functionally connected.
4) The main floor consists of a very large openly planned area for living, and a more enclosed
kitchen section. The living area is articulated by means of a straight wall of onyx and which define
four subordinate domains: living room, dining room, study and hall. The study is located in the inmost
point of the area, and has the character of a semi-enclosed pocket, but the living and dining areas open
up to the landscape through continuous glass walls, which at the press of a button could slide into the
floor. Along the side, the glass wall is double, and intermediate space contains a conservatory which
provides greenery the whole year round. The enclosure and subdivision of the main area could be
regulated by means of movable curtains. To understand Mies’s spatial articulation it is important to
study how the different types of walls are joined together, for all joints and details are a function of the
spatial composition and express the general underlying concept of open space. The space-defining
elements are also carefully related to the structural skeleton which forms a regular rhythm throughout
the main floor. Cross-shaped chromium-plated columns express the precision and general openness of
the system. They thus prove Mies’s dictum that a “clear” structure makes the free plan possible, that
is, meaningful. The basement is occupied by technical rooms where heating, air-condition, laundry
and other utility rooms are placed and there is the space for sliding windows too.
5) In the house for the Berlin Exhibition in1931, Mies gave a particularly convincing
demonstration of the combination of a clear structure and free plan, and his courthouses from the
thirties applied the principle to generally small urban building sites. His later houses from the postwar
period show an increased preoccupation with the problem of articulated structure, but the basic
concept remains the same.

Vocabulary:

to accommodate to sth - přizpůsobit čemu, uvést v soulad s čím

to articulate - článkovat, členit, artikulovat
articulation - artikulace, členění
conservatory - skleník, zimní zahrada
courthouse - soudní budova, soud
dictum - výrok, rčení
ebony - eben, ebenové dřevo
enclosure - obklopení, ohrazení, ohrazeny prostor, plášť budovy)
flight of stairs - rameno schodiště
fluid - proměnlivý, plynulý, graciézní
to fuse - spojit, sloučit, slít
hollow - dutý
inherent - inherentní, vlastní (čemu), patřící (čemu)
inmost - nejvnitřnější
layout – půdorysné/dispoziční řešení, uspořádání
to overlap - přečnívat, přesahovat, překrývat se
precision - přesnost, přesné seřízení, exaktnost
preoccupation with sth - zaujetí, posedlost
to slide - klouzat, posunovat (se)
subordinate - vedlejší, podřízený
to treat -zde zacházet, zpracovat
underlying - skrytý- základní, vlastní

3. Pair work: Read the 3rd and the 4th paragraph. Describe each other the ground plans in
detail, use the vocabulary from the article.

2nd floor

1st floor

4. Say whether the following statements are true or false. Correct the false ones.

1. The Barcelona Pavilion and Tugendhat House were built in the same year and followed
the same principles.
2. It is a three-storey building.
3. The bedrooms are treated like separate boxes connected by the roof.
4. The main entrance to the house is on the 1st floor, next to the hall.
5. The horizontal structural members are supported by steel chromium-plated
columns only.
6. The main floor is on the same level like the terrace and the garden.
7. The floor plans consist of fully enclosed spaces linked by doorways.
8. The conservatory is beside the dining area.
9. Only modest materials were used in this house.
10. Functionalism used only right angles which are typical for this house.

5. Make two lists of pros and cons of this building, evaluate what is timeless and what is
disputable from nowadays point of view.

6. Find the grammatical mistakes and correct them:

Second floor contain three bedrooms.

From the road house appears as small building.
Did they constructed the bridge according the original plans?
The house was build at a sloping site.
This volumes are treated as boxes.
The house is situated in the Brno.

7. Translate:

volná dispozice -………………………………………………….

vnější / vnitřní prostor -………………………………………….
prostorové členění -……………………………………………….
složité dispoziční řešení -…………………………………………
prostory se překrývají -…………………………………………...
zimní zahrada -…………………………………………………….
svažitý pozemek -………………………………………………….
v druhém patře -……………………………………………………
horní patro -…………………………………………………………
prostorná místnost -…………………………………………………
polouzavřená kuchyňská část -…………………………………….
technické zázemí -……………………………………………………
konstrukční systém -…………………………………………………
volně stojící podpora -………………………………………………
pohyblivé příčky -……………………………………………………
zakřivená skleněná stěna -………………………………………….
schodišťové rameno -……………………………………………….
prostor je oddělen pomocí závěsů -…………………………………
je z poloviny zakryto střechou -……………………………………
místnost je propojena se zahradou -……………………………….
fasáda je členěna pilastry -………………………………………….