MONUMENT RESTORATION

In 2010–2012, a comprehensive conservation and restoration of Villa Tugendhat was carried out, returning the house to the appearance as it was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and built in 1929–1930. During the restoration, emphasis was placed on preserving the original materials and technical equipment in order to preserve as much of the authenticity of the monument as possible, and to supply the missing parts based on detailed knowledge of the original design.

The journey towards the restoration of Villa Tugendhat and its accessibility as an installed monument of modern architecture took more than forty years. František Kalivoda first sought to open the original family home to the public in the 1960’s, and it was even the wish of the client and first owner of the building, Greta Tugendhat, and later of her descendants. At the beginning of the 1980’s, the first restoration and reconstruction of Villa Tugendhat took place.

The comprehensive restoration of the villa in 2010–2012 was preceded by a series of surveys, examining the building history and heritage restoration campaigns.

For the planned restoration, the preparation of a detailed historical building survey (SHP) by a multi-professional group of architectural historians, conservationists, archivists, architectural theorists, garden architects, art historians and natural scientists, including experts from abroad, under the leadership of Karel Ksander, was essential. The team of experts gathered the maximum amount of knowledge about the original form of the house and rehabilitated the bad reputation of the reconstruction from the 1980’s. The SHP, completed in 2001, included recommendations for the future conservation and restoration of the villa – suggestions for methodical approaches to the gentle restoration of the original surfaces. In 2003, the first round of restoration research was carried out under the direction of Ivo Hammer with the financial participation of the Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaft und Kunst Hildesheim / Holzminden / Göttingen. This was followed by further international restoration campaigns between 2005 and 2010, culminating in the final phase, the Conservation Investigation Campaign, from 1 to 5 March 2010. The project was sponsored by the University of Pardubice and under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Ivo Hammer, a team of teachers and students from several domestic and international schools participated. The aim of the project was to identify and refine the methods of carrying out individual restoration and conservation interventions and to verify them on practical samples – pilot surfaces. The survey focused on exterior and interior plaster, stone, wood and metal (e.g., interior and exterior column cladding, wood surfaces of built-in elements, etc.), both the original historic materials, techniques and surfaces in Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s work, as well as materials and techniques of historic alterations, including their condition and causes of deterioration. The results of the final stage of the research became the basis for the elaboration of restoration plans and for the determination of the method of restoration of the original substance of the villa, which was described by Ivo Hammer as the most authentic Mies building in Europe.

The City of Brno, as the owner of the building, as well as other civic initiatives such as the Brno Fund for the Restoration of Villa Tugendhat, the Villa Tugendhat Foundation, the London Friends of Tugendhat and the American Institute of Architects sought to restore the building in the resolution “Continued Restoration of the Villa Tugendhat”. The intention was to be facilitated by the inscription of Villa Tugendhat on the UNESCO World Heritage List on 16 December 2001. The following year, the city of Brno launched a public tender for a designer for the restoration. The winner was chosen by an eleven-member jury and the first place was awarded to the Association for Villa Tugendhat consisting of OMNIA, Archatt, Archteam, Rusín & Wahla. The Association for Villa Tugendhat followed up on the preparatory work carried out by historians and restorers and in 2005–2006 prepared the first three-stage restoration project. The search for funds to finance such a demanding construction and restoration project was resulted in funding provided from European funds and co-financing by the owner of the building – the City of Brno.

The complete restoration project was presented to the professional public in the Assembly Hall of the New Town Hall of Brno during an international conference on 16–18 June 2009. The actual construction work, provided by the general contractor Unistav, a. s., began at the onset of 2010. After a demanding restoration, Villa Tugendhat was reopened to the public as an installed monument of modern architecture on 29 February 2012.

The objectives of the restoration and renewal of the building, as defined by the Association for Villa Tugendhat, were:

a) to save and significantly prolong the life of the building as a preserved original

b) the preservation and restoration of the original state of the house as designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and as it was built in 1929-1930. The means of this plan was, from a professional point of view, a rehabilitation, i.e. a gentle loosening of the heritage building towards its essence [i.e. the material and surface value of the original, including the application of the layer of initial use (until WW2), conservation of the essence and a commemorative completion of the missing parts based on detailed knowledge of the original design.