Michelle Delk is a landscape architect and partner at Snøhetta, which combines environmental and cultural sensitivity in all its work. Their well-known projects include the Bibliotheca Alexandria and the new Opera House in Oslo. Based in New York, Michelle’s work is transdisciplinary. Through simple designs, she creates places that strengthen the relationship between people and their environment. She …

The exhibition Pavilion A – Structure / Space presents the chronological development of the pavilion’s construction and at the same time presents various aspects of the significance of this monument of modern architecture, which, in addition to its unique structure, is also remarkable for its iconic value. The fact that the pavilion has served its original purpose …

15:30 – SANTINI AND MIES (GUIDED TOUR) The concept of Open Space, but also the folds of thinking in Heideggerian phenomenology and its interpretation, on a tour of Villa Tugendhat with architect Jiří Vítek and professor Jiří Kroupa. Admission: 150 Kč / personCapacity is limited, advance ticket purchase required.Tickets can be purchased online from 18 September. 17:30 – …

The November meeting of the open cycle of meetings with public figures in Villa Tugendhat will introduce actress, politician, writer and civic activist Táňa Fischerová. A promising and successful actress who fell into disfavour due to her political attitudes, returned to public life and politics after the peaceful November ‘revolution’ . Life makes sense when it …

A lecture by Pavel Kuznetsov, director of the Konstantin and Viktor Melnikov State Museum and deputy director of the Schusev State Museum of Architecture in Moscow, is part of the European Iconic Houses lecture tour, which will visit six European destinations in its fifth year. Pavel Kuznetsov will present the unique Melnikov House designed by architect …

This year’s jubilee-celebrating film documentary filmmaker, politician and publicist Olga Sommerová is a guest of the October meeting in the Glass Room. Her film and book documentaries, The Life of… or What Women Dream Of and What Men Dream Of, have become an authentic reflection of the times in which they were created. How has Czech society shifted since then, how does …

Permeating Worlds A meeting on St. Nicholas eve with a person quite appropriate during the pre-Christmas period: professor, doctor, monsignore Tomáš Halík. Czech Catholic priest, theologian, religionist, religion sociologist, university educator, psychologist, philosopher, political activist. Few of the personalities of spiritual life polarize society so much. He is both worshiped and cursed. Tomáš Halík will give you …

The lecture focuses on the most interesting designs by Jindřich Halabala for the United Arts and Crafts Factory in Brno in the 1930s. It highlights the main types of seating, cabinet, table and additional furniture, special attention is given to original tubular furniture, and attention is drawn to the current interest in originals and in …

The 4th edition of the Iconic Houses European Lecture Tour takes place from 9–16 October 2018, when Tim Benton, Professor Emeritus in Art History (Open University), will tour five European cities – Oslo, Cologne, Rotterdam, Prague and Brno – with a lecture on Eileen Gray’s iconic Villa E-1027 by the sea on the Côte d’Azur. Restoring Eileen Gray’s Villa …

Villa Tugendhat will again be involved in the 8th edition of the national festival of celebrating architecture, which is organized by the KRUH association in cooperation with local organizations and initiatives from 28 September to 4 October. This year’s main programme focuses on the theme of “Architecture Together”, since the festival commemorates the 100th anniversary of …

The founding of the Finnish ARTEK group (art + tekniikka, art + technology) in 1935 was initiated by Alvar and Aino Aalto, Maire Gullichsen and Nils Gustav Hahl with the idea of “selling furniture and promoting modern housing culture through exhibitions and other activities“. The function and aesthetics of ARTEK’s furniture was based on the original …

The Weizmann House by Erich MendelsohnIconic Houses Lecture 2017 by architect Tal Eyal  The Weizmann House was designed and built by world-renowned German Jewish architect Erich Mendelsohn (1887–1953) between 1934–37 as private residence for Dr. Chaim Weizmann, who was the first President of the State of Israel, and Dr. Vera Weizmann. The chosen location was Rehovot, in …

From Thonet to TON: the post-war history of bentwood furniture The lecture is focused on the post-war development of bentwood furniture, which has not been professionally researched so far and is often unjustly neglected. It notices the shape changes in the post-war period, activity of company designers Antonín Šuman, Radomír Hofman and Josef Macek working …

A discussion with designers Jaroslav Juřica and Michal Riabič about their designs for TON, respect for traditional technique, and the present forms of furniture made from bent beech wood. Moderated by Dagmar Koudelková. Jaroslav Juřica  Graduated from the Furniture Secondary School in Bystřice pod Hostýnem and Sculpture Department, Faculty of Fine Arts in Brno. Thanks to …

31 October at 6 p.m. When Michael Thonet invented bending wooden rods, he gave rise not only to a new morphology of seating furniture, but also a whole new industrial sector. It is inspiring to watch the development of the Thonet company’s beginnings in Boppard on the Rhine, through the engagement in Vienna, to his relocation to Moravia. His talent …

Modern furniture and modern architecture  Development of furniture proceeded hand in hand with architecture. This applies to modern architecture and interior. Formal and ideological characteristics of modern furniture are almost identical with the characteristics of architecture. It is interesting when comparing the development of some chairs by famous architects (Rietveld, Breuer, Mies van der Rohe). …

Architecture historian Pavel Zatloukal will present a lecture on his latest publication, Meditations on Architecture: Olomouc, Brno, Hradec Králové 1815 ̶ 1915. The book Meditation on Architecture is focused on three cities – Olomouc, Brno and Hradec Králové – which were still forts well into the 19th century. The red thread of the book is based on three stories about how …

Fallingwater In 1935, Frank Lloyd Wright designed a country house for the Kaufmann Family over a small stream in Western Pennsylvania. He named it Fallingwater. It remains one of Wright’s most acclaimed buildings. Fallingwater, perhaps more than any other building, exemplifies Wright’s concept of ‘organic’ architecture, which seeks to harmonize people and nature by integrating the building, …

Prof. Dr. Phil. Magdalena Droste studied art history at the University of Marburg. She spent her voluntary gap years in 1977–1979 in the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart and in 1979 she was a guest curator at the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus in Munich. In 1980–1997 she worked as a museum curator in the Bauhaus Archive in Berlin. Since 1997 she …

Qatar Sports City – Competition For FIFA World Cup Soccer Stadium A competition submittal for the Qatar 2022 FIFA soccer World Cup opening and final game iconic stadium. Drawing on the rich traditions of nomadic Bedouin “architecture” that are well adapted to their harsh Middle Eastern environment, New Sports City Stadium is a completely flexible building capable …

Villa TugendhatA house on the edge of history The same title as the lecture is also featured on a monograph dedicated to this project by architect Jan Sapák. The Villa Tugendhat in Brno is his lifelong theme – Jan Sapák has been focusing on the history and destiny of this house since his studies. He considers the …

Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles In 2003, a concert hall was successfully completed in Los Angeles after 16 years of construction, its design was created in the studio of Frank Owen Gehry. The building immediately became the symbol of Los Angeles after its completion (similarly like the Opera House in Sydney). In terms of …

TOPOMOMO – Topography of the Modern Movement From 1918 to 1939 the area between Weisswasser in Upper Lusatia and Jablonec nad Nisou in Northern Bohemia was characterized by innovative industrialists and visionary architects. Since 2012 the Foundation „Haus Schminke“ and the TU Liberec have been creating a network called “TOPOMOMO“ (short for „Topography of the Modern …

The Roots of the Barcelona Pavilion For years scholars and historians have attributed the origins of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s landmark design for the Barcelona Pavilion to the revolutionary spatial experiments he undertook beginning in the early 1920s. But the roots of Mies’s ideas almost certainly extend further back, to his early years in …

Building and business activities of the Löw-Beer family In August last year, a book titled “The Löw-Beer Villas and the History of an Entrepreneurial  Family” was published, dedicated to the Jewish textile industrialists and traders, the Löw-Beer family. The authors focus on the rise of the family from the Boskovice ghetto to textile magnates and patrons …

SPECIFIC ARCHITECTURE / ABSTRACT ARCHITECTUREBARCELONA PAVILLION / TUGENDHAT HOUSELILLY REICH / LUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHETREATISE ON SPECIAL RELATIONSHIPS Lilly Reich and Mies van der Rohe were one of the most successful, but also one the most mysterious among lover couples in the history of world architecture. The influence of Lilly Reich on the sudden …

Weissenhofsiedlung in Stuttgart The Weissenhofsiedlung is one of the most significant landmarks left by the movement known as “Neues Bauen”. The estate was erected in 1927 as a residential building exhibition arranged by the City of Stuttgart and the Deutscher Werkbund. Working under the artistic direction of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, seventeen architects created an …

Vienna Modernism and its Relations to Czech Modern Architecture In Vienna, after 1900, Jewish students did not attend Otto Wagner’s class at the Academy of Fine Arts which was considered anti-semitic. An alternative was the class of Friedrich Ohmann. Generally, however, they preferred the Technical College and its director Carl König. Some of König’s students, rejecting the …

The Significance and Survival of the Richard and Dion Neutra VDL Studio and Residences Richard Neutra (1892–1970) was born and educated in Vienna, inspired by Otto Wagner, and a direct student of Adolf Loos. Like his older friend Rudolph Schindler he aspired to work with Frank Lloyd Wright but was detained by WW I. Only after …

One of the frequent topics in the current architectural discourse is the role of the architect in society. When looking into the history of architecture, however, we find parallels of such conduct among Renaissance utopians through the 19th century utopian socialists to representatives of the socialist avant-garde in the first half of the 20th century. It seems …

The Van Schijndel House in Utrecht is a true signature house wherein every aspect, including most of the furniture, was designed and built by the architect Mart van Schijndel himself. The architect’s vision and key concepts of light, colour, space and furniture design make this impressive house stand out as a Gesamtkunstwerk. The architect built this extraordinary house …

“I always wanted to have a modern spacious house of clear and simple shapes.” In January this year, 45 years have passed since the legendary lecture by Grete Tugendhat in the Brno House of Arts. It took place in the context of an exceptional exhibition of the works of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, which took …

On Wednesday, 29 January 2014 Brno House of Art holds a seminar entitled „BRNO UNBUILT. Unrealized urban plans of the First Republic“. The seminar is organized by the institute of Design 3 of the Faculty of Architecture and the Brno House of Arts. Brno house of Arts, Malinovského náměstí 2,Wednesday, 29 January 2014, 9–13 h, free entry

Architekt Otto Eisler – mezi „loosovským tradicionalismem a gropiovským modernismem“ V létě letošního roku uplynulo 120 let od narození a 45 let od úmrtí architekta Otto Eislera (1. 6. 1893 Bystřice nad Pernštejnem – 27. 7. 1968 Brno). Otto Eisler stojí ve své tvorbě mezi „loosovským tradicionalismem a gropiovským modernismem“. S Adolfem Loosem se však Otto Eisler i přátelil a u Waltera Gropia pracoval. Recepci Eislerova díla …

With the speakers Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat and Ivo Hammer Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat will talk about the life in Brno’s Villa Tugendhat, showing photos from her father’s private collection. She will also attempt to answer the question first asked as early as 1931 in Werkbund’s Die Form magazine, “Is it possible to live in Villa Tugendhat?” The issue of the …

The person and work of one of the most famous native sons of Brno, the architect Adolf Loos (10th December 1870 Brno – 23rd August 1933 Kalksburg, Vienna), has been of interest to several generations of art historians and architecture theoreticians. Loos’s explorations outside the branch of architecture, his friendly contacts with  the Viennese intellectual and …

V rámci doprovodného programu k výstavě WILHELM LEHMBRUCK. RETROSPEKTIVA se uskuteční v Domě umění města Brna přednáška Prof. PhDr. Petra Wittlicha, CSc. Přednáškou Petra Wittlicha, výjimečné osobnosti české a evropské uměnovědy, vyvrcholí doprovodné akce k výstavě, která končí v neděli 10. listopadu 2013. Petr Wittlich je významný český historik umění, profesor Filozofické fakulty Karlovy univerzity v Praze. Předmětem jeho celoživotního badatelského zájmu je moderní …

“The story of the torso from Villa Tugendhat and Wilhelm Lehmbruck” The first lecture prepared by the Study and Documentation Centre in Villa Tugendhat after the summer will be held exceptionally in the House of Arts (Dům umění) this time. It is included in the accompanying programme for the exhibition „Wilhelm Lehmbruck (1881–1919) Retrospective”. The exhibition runs from …

Last lecture before the summer will focus on an exceptional location in Brno and the Villa Tugendhat. In 1860, the first residential colony in Brno was formed on a slope of Černá Pole above the Lužánky park. The genius loci of the place was amplified in 1930 with one of the most famous villa buildings in …

Members of the design team (Marek Tichý, Milan Rak, Ivan Wahla, Tomáš Rusín, Vítek Tichý) will introduce the concept of monument renewal and rehabilitation of Villa Tugendhat, they will point out the key moments of the design process in the preparation and implementation phases and will discuss and answer questions from the audience.  The lecture …

Although the space arrangement of Villa Tugendhat was being described as radical, its preparation and aims can be followed in the works of its author since 1923. Most of the ideas and themes used at the Brno building were tried by Mies in previous designs and buildings, and thus when designing Villa Tugendhat, he worked …

Villa Tugendhat was received by the Czech environment quite coldly or rather with ignorance up to definite negative emotions. Leaders of the Czech avant-garde, Karel Teige and Jaromír Krejcer, condemned the building as modernistic snobbery and ostentatiousness of expensive residential culture and a residence of the modern financial aristocracy. The only positive criticism of Villa Tugendhat in …

On Wednesday 21 November 2012, world-renowned Czech architect and designer Eva Jiřičná lectured at the Villa Tugendhat. A lecture on “Architecture laced with glass and steel – from design to practical experience” took place as part of a presentation by KNAUF on contemporary lifestyle technologies. The Faculty of Civil Engineering in Brno was the expert guarantor of …

“Thoughts on the Ground Plan: Spatial Ideas in Mies, Loos, Strnad, Frank and Scharoun” During the early decades of the last century, Central Europe was not a fertile ground for discussions about building style, but also for experiments involving issues of architectural space, movement, and procession. This lecture will examine the works and ideas of five …

A closed lecture, organised by the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Science, took place in Villa Tugendhat on 6 June 2012. The lecture on the theme Immaterial Bodies: Mies van der Rohe and the Baroque, was presented on the technical floor by prof. Dr. Phil Josef Vojvodík M.A. The programme included a piano performance by Jana Chaudhuri, …