Restoring Mies's Villa Tugendhat

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Mies designed the house to fit the land on which it was sited. Here, the living spaces face southwest to take full advantage of the extensive garden and sunlight. Two of the three large windows drop down to open the living and dining rooms to the outdoors.

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Grete’s bedroom, like most of the other rooms in the Villa, now holds a mix of original and exact replica furnishings. Cerna says it was often difficult to find craftspeople that still have the knowledge necessary to work with the materials and style from the early part of the 20th century. The room, along with daughter Hana’s room, has access to the terrace.

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Fritz Tugendahat’s desk boasts a rosewood veneer. The Moroccan onyx wall is one of the house’s best elements. When sun shines in, the honey-colored hues glow. The other side of the wall is the main living area and to the right is the library.

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The building’s wraparound terrace is now filled with the same kinds of plants as when the family lived there in the 1930s. Cerna says they hunted down the original carpet manufacturer and bought vintage pieces from them.

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Fritz’s bedroom, located on the entrance floor, was spaced between his wife’s room and their shared bathroom. The rooms are startlingly stark; no art or other decorative elements, which is keeping with Mies’s restrained design philosophy.

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The furnishings used here were made from a lighter, brighter zebrano veneer compared to the darker rosewood found in the parents’ rooms. The furniture in both children’s rooms was designed child-sized, with one “grown-up” chair for the governess.

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The Tugendhats’ living room flows into the dining room. The curved macassar wall in the background partitions off the family dining room. This wall is one of the reconstruction’s biggest success stories. During World War II it was moved to the Gestapo’s local headquarters and thought to be gone forever. One member of the local design team discovered it in a nearby university cafeteria; it was then painstakingly restored and placed back into the home.

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The furniture pieces are exact copies of the prototypes originally made by Mies. The green chairs are the famed “Barcelona” ones while the silver are called “Tugendhat.” Here you can also Mies design unified the interior furnishings with the exterior detailing of the home.

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Here’s the upper terrace with doors leading from Grete and Hana’s bedrooms. Even Mies’s deck furniture is austere, although steel and concrete are more fitting in the outdoors. Villa Tugendhat was the last house Mies built in Europe and is also a showcase for many of his original furniture designs.

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