This Is Not My Beautiful House!

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DSCF1887FUJIFILM X-T1 (14mm, f/8, 1/420 sec, ISO200)

A trip that we wanted to make for a long time. This Christmas holiday we finally managed to go there. The Villa Tugendhat.

It is located less than a 3 hours drive from home in Brno, Czech Republic. So its easy to get there but there are just a couple of guided tours per day and they are booked months in advance. My wife found a slot in early January so we went there.

Despite the poor weather during most of our holiday we had blue skies when we visited the place. Perfect!

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The house is just perfect. Pictures fail to give you an impression. It just looks beautiful. It has been built in 1930 within just 1 year. It’s amazing what can be done if money is not an issue. And money was no issue for Fritz Tugendhat, a german industrial magnate.

There are a lot of rich people but not too many beautiful houses. Only when money and taste comes together something special can be created. It was Mies van der Rohe who designed the building at the same time he designed the famous Barcelona pavilion.

It still looks modern and fresh today.

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The lines are clear and it seems there is not a single thing that has no function. Even the housing technology was impressive and still is. There is a big heating system but also an early version of an air condition to cool the house on hot summer days. They used massive stones and groundwater to cool the air that went into the building. It was also possible to open the massive glass windows on the front to allow circulation by the push of a button. A massive mechanic then tilted the 900 kg window forward. Impressive.

And because his wife Grete had an allergy there was a filter system that cleaned the outside air from pollen. The incoming air passed stream of motor oil! To avoid the smell of motor engines the air went trough a cedar wood filter that was perfumed with Lavendel.

Another example that this was a cost no objective building is the famous Onyx wall in the living room in picture number 3. It was made of 5 segments. Each segment the price of a normal 2 store family house at that time.

When you walk through the building you have the impression that this building was built last year. If you don’t look too close at the light switches. Only when you see the washing machine in the cellar you get an idea how modern and special this building was almost 100 years ago.

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But the Tugendhats were not able to enjoy their home for long. They were Jewish and needed to flee the country after the Nazi’s came to power in Germany. Next occupant was the famous aircraft designer Walter Messerschmitt who had to run away from the Russians a couple of years later. But he was smart enough to wall in the Onyx panels to save it from the Russians. The Russians smashed everything and used the house as a stable. After war it became a dancing school and later a rehab center for handicapped children.

There was a first attempt to restore the building in the 80s but it it wasn’t till 2010 when the real restoration of the house started. 3 years and 6 million from the European Union later the restored house was opened to the public. Money well spent. And little money compared to what we spent on saving bankrupt banks and countries.

It is a fantastic building. It was years ahead of its time and it still looks amazing today. It has an impressive timeless quality.

When I visited the Barcelona pavilon in 2006 I had only my Canon Ixus 800 IS with me (my Nikon D200 stayed in the hotel). Its zoom lens was just 35mm (talking full frame) on its wide end and had a lot of distortion. Not the best to cover a building.

This time I didn’t regret that I did not bring my DSLR. The opposite is true. The XF 14mm is better than my Canon 4/16-35 IS because it is practically is distortion free. The XF 23mm was perfect when I needed a tighter crop and it was fast enough to blur distracting backgrounds. A perfect combo.

DSCF1905FUJIFILM X-T1 (14mm, f/8, 1/550 sec, ISO200)