Villa Tugendhat, Functionalist museum building in Černá Pole district, Brno, Czech Republic.
Villa Tugendhat is a functionalist museum building in the Černá Pole district of Brno, Czech Republic, recognized as a World Heritage Site and national cultural monument. The three-story structure displays open floor plans with ceiling-height windows, a reinforced concrete frame and natural materials including walls of Moroccan onyx plus partitions of rosewood and Macassar ebony.
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich finished the residential project in 1930 for Fritz and Greta Tugendhat, who departed the country in 1938. During World War II the building served military purposes before undergoing restoration decades later to become a museum and cultural monument.
The name honors the Tugendhat family who commissioned it as their home, while the interior reveals a vision of modern living through its open plan and continuous flow between areas. Visitors today see how residents once abandoned traditional room divisions and instead used materials such as onyx and metal to define separate zones.
Visitors choose from three guided tour options lasting 40, 60, or 90 minutes, with advance booking recommended due to limited capacity. The visit covers multiple floors, so comfortable footwear is advisable, and the interior maintains a quiet atmosphere that encourages focused observation.
A glass wall can be lowered mechanically into the basement, a technical solution that was novel for residential architecture in 1930. The mechanism allows the living space to open or close as needed and demonstrates the period enthusiasm for technical innovation in everyday life.
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