Vilu Tugendhat awaits renovation, the current preparations are mapped out by an exhibition

Brno - The rare Brno functionalist Tugendhat villa is set for extensive reconstruction in the coming years. The current progress of historical, restoration, and construction research is being mapped by the exhibition TugendhatTugendhatTugendhat at the House of Arts in Brno, which will open to the public on Wednesday.
"The exhibition concerns the works on the restoration of the villa, so it is somewhat a working exhibition. It consists of three construction containers," said the author of the exhibition concept, architect Tomáš Rusín, who is also involved in preparing the repairs. In the individual containers, visitors will find the results of structural-historical research, restoration research, and the heritage restoration project of the villa.
The working nature of the exhibition is complemented by historical photographs taken by enthusiastic amateur photographer Fritz Tugendhat during the time he lived in the house with his family. Contemporary artists have also captured the same views of the rare object, even using the same model of Leica camera. Visitors to the exhibition can thus compare how the villa looked shortly after its completion and how it appears now.
It is still unclear when the villa's repairs will begin. According to Pavel Ciprian, director of the Brno City Museum, the project for the construction permit is already completed, but the executive project is still pending. "It should be finished in August," Rusín told ČTK today. The executive project will also determine the estimated cost of the repairs, which no one is currently able to estimate. However, it will likely be in the hundreds of millions of crowns.
The heritage restoration should return the villa to its original state and complete the exhibition space, a souvenir shop, and a research facility. Most of the original furnishings of the villa have been irretrievably lost and will therefore be replaced with faithful replicas. The Brno City Museum preserves the only original chair from the villa, while the Moravian Gallery manages an additional four pieces of furniture. The Tugendhat family took part of the furnishings with them into exile. "But it is difficult to ask them to provide us with these items," Ciprian noted.
The Tugendhat villa in Brno's Černá Pole was designed in 1928 by the world-renowned German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The building is unique in its spatial concept, material selection, and interior design. It generated great interest even at the time of its creation. "It was a UFO that landed in Brno, it was worth the price of hundreds of villas," believes Rusín. After a series of mishaps when the building was used for various purposes, the unique project finally received its due recognition - it was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2001.
The building enjoys exceptional interest from tourists, which far exceeds the possibilities for tours. "We are already accepting reservations for September," Iveta Černá, who manages the property, alerted ČTK today. She noted that interest is continually rising, as people are concerned about the long-term closure of the villa due to reconstruction. More than half of the visitors are foreigners.