Legendary Mies van der Rohe Home to Reopen to Public

Tags: Conservation

Villa Tugendhat, the modernist masterpiece designed by famed German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in 1930, will open to the public in March after a 2-year, $9 million renovation project. Some 80% of the home’s original interior will be authentic, a huge feat considering its complex history– it was seized and redecorated by the Gestapo, bombed by the allies, used as a horse stable by the Red Army, and devastatingly renovated by the Communists. Some of this 80% the renovators credit to luck: several parts of the interior, including a bathtub and a curved wall of ebony, were found in nearby buildings in Brno, Czech Republic.

The reconstruction project is led by Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat, daughter of Fritz and Grete Tugendhat, who commissioned the home and lived there with Daniela and her two sisters for eight years. They fled Czechoslovakia in 1938, first for Switzerland and later for Venezuela, not long before their architect fled to Chicago and subsequently designed some of the most important modern architecture in the United States.

The accord that divided Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia was signed here in 1992, further enhancing the historical significance of the home.

Art Daily provides a detailed report on the fascinating & extensive renovation project

Photo courtesy of VillaTugendhat.eu