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TUGENDHAT HOUSELUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHE

SI-SHE CHIN

ARCH 602 PAPER TWO

Figure 1Satellite image of Site Plan <Source: Google Earth>

south garden

glass wall

north street

concrete wall

Tugendhat House in Brno, Czechoslovakia is a residence designed by architect Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe. The house, a gift for a new wedding couple, is sitting on site sloping toward south. It provides excellent view of city of Brno and hallowed old Spielberg castle across the valley. To response the slope of site, the north side, the top of the slope, has the upper level of house facing the street to the public. The South side is garden site, which the house has two-story high elevation facing it.

It goes without saying that Tugendhat house has strong similarity to Mies’ precedent work Barcelona Pavilion. They all have cruciform iron columns sitting on the grid of plan. Not as open as the space in Barcelona Pavilion,

Diagram 1: the site plan of Tugendhat House.The site is sloping down toward south and the house is sitting by the north edge. The north side of house is facing street and south side is facing garden. One contrast in design is that the house facing street hasmore concrete wall with small horizontal window, and facing south has more glass window to introduce light into house and

provide view of city.

some columns in Tugendhat house are hided into wall to divide space for programs. Huge panes of glass cover- ing whole south side and east side of lower main space in Tugendhat house can also be found in Barcelona Pavilion. Stairway for the access of garden and terracein lower level in Tugendhat house is another similar ele- ment can be found as the main entrance of Barcelona Pavilion. The stairway is parallel to the orientation of

Figure 2Floor Plan <Source: http://ww w .pushpullba r .com>

Figure 3Front Elevation and Rear Elevation <Source: http://ww w .pushpullba r .com> Figure 4Side Elevations <Source: http://ww w .pushpullba r .com>

main building. This design has been pointed out by Mies’assistant that is also similar to Le Corbusier’s designin Villa Stein in Garches in figure 8: the terrace cut into building while projecting beyond the garden façade, the parapet of upper level run across above the terrace as a narrow strip of wall, and the stairs are positioned in front of a continuous band of windows in the main floor .

Diagram 2: the “Cell”The floor plan of Tugendhat House can be identified as combination of series of distinct blocks. Except main space which surrounded by blocks, every room orsome outer space can be recognized as rectangles.

Diagram 3: Public v.s. PrivateQuite clear that all programs in upper floor are private space, and the programs in lower space are more public, such as living room, dining room, kitchen, and so on.

Glass wall and carefully ordered columnar system are two of Mies Style. It can be trace back to his design after First World War that to manifest the frame structureof skyscraper, glass cladding can be adopted to show structure clearly. The glass wall can be seen as curtain wall that it doesn’t take any load. In Tugendhat House the same idea reveal in cruciform column structure with huge glass cladding on the south side.

Besides previous two elements, the onyx and Macas- sar wall can be also seen as Mies’ style. In Tugendhat house a wall of Macassar wood shapes hemi-cycle and encloses the dining area. The onyx wall extends behind seating area and serves to further define spaces. It has some difference from Barcelona Pavilion that this marble wall is made up of five solid vertical slabs with the vein- ing of the sections symmetrically mirrored . The pattern on onyx wall is on fourth and fifth panels and mirror verti- cally, which the pattern in Barcelona Pavilion is mirrored horizontally.

Figure 5Main Stairway from outside and inside<Source: http://ww w .a r chi t ectur e w ee k .com/>

Diagram 4: Grid Columnar SystemOne of Mies’ styles that main structure is formedas grid column system. It is the same as Barcelona Pavilion that columns are cruciform and layout as grid. Each bay is not square but elongate a little bit. Unlike Barcelona Pavilion, for the purpose of dividing space for programs, some cruciform columns are hidden into wall.

Diagram 5: ComparisonThe layouts of hemi-cycle stairway and main entrance are similar between Tugendhat House and Richard- son’s Crane Memorial Library. The stairway pops up as a bay and main entrance recess into elevation.

Figure 6Exterior <Source: http://ww w .a r ch.mcgill.ca/>

The scheme of arrangement of living room, covered ter- race, and outside steps can refer to not only Barcelona Pavilion, but also another Mies’ unbuilt project Brick Country House. The upper floor plan is quite similar to the linear play of walls in Brick Country House. Also they have identical graphical representation and the actual look of structures. Quote the definition of elementsof columns and walls that “what gives the building its quality is the proportions, and proportions don’t cost anything. For the most part it is the proportions between things; it is not even the things themselves. ” To commu- nicate the principle of space, the proportions between things, as actual basic design motif, Mies sets off the individual areas from their surroundings in the form of marked “cells (Diagram 2.)” On the other hand, compar- ing to the ground plan of Brick Country House, the indi- cated space is possible almost solely in an intellectual way .

Besides these precedents of Mies’ own work, some ele- ment in Tugendhat House can be recognized in other buildings. The main stairway with hemi-cycle glazing cladding around on the upper floor and main entrance recessing behind stairway provide similar image of Henry Richardson’s Crane Memorial Library in diagram 5.

The floor plan has strange organization. The private space, such as master bedroom, children’s room, and guestroom, are located at the same level with main en- trance. From entrance to access the main space, living room and dining room, people have to walk down the

Figure

7The steel Frame Structure<Source: “Mies Van Der Rohe the Villas and Country Houses”>

Figure 8the comparison of Le Corbusier’s Villa Stein and Mies’ Tugendhat House <Source: KSA Digital Library and “Mies Van Der Rohe,” teNeues> stair. This weird organization is formed by

some factors: the house is sitting north sloping down toward south, the main entrance from north will reach upper level of the house, and the space arrangement is private spaceon the top and main space on the bottom to make main space more closer to garden side in diagram 6.

UPPER LEVEL

Garage

Terrace Entrance Hall

Utility

Guestroom

Children Bedroom x2

Mies’ principle of architecture “Less is more” reveals almost every of his works, so does Tugendhat House. Steel frame structure with concrete wall and glass wall

Terrace

stairway

Servant stairwa

y

Mater Bedroom x2

Utility

cladding the exterior shows the materiality . The style of simplicity makes Tugendhat House become one of mas- terpiece of contemporary architecture.

stairway stairway

Terrace Servant

Storage

Kitchen

Study Living Room Dining Room Party

Utility

Winter Garden

stairway

Terrace

stairway

Garden

LOWER LEVEL

REFERENCE-F. Schulze, “Mies Van Der Rohe A Critical Biography,” the

Diagram 6: the Organization of ProgramsThis diagram shows the flowchart of programs and also shows the relationship between programs. The upper part is second floor and has stairway linking first floor at bot- tom. The huge main space has several programs within and shows as a big block in diagram. The weird relation- ship of private space and entrance clearly demonstratesin this flowchart.

University of Chicago Press, 1985-W. Tegethoff, “Mies Van Der Rohe the Villas and CountryHouses,” the Museum of Modern Arts New York, 1985-H. Wu, “A History of Architecture of the 20th Century inthe Western World,” Garden City Publishers, 1998-L. Hilberseimer, “Mies Van Der Rohe,” Paul Theobald and Company, Chicago, 1956-P. Asensio, et al, “Mies Van Der Rohe,” teNeues, 2002-D. Hammer-Tugendhat, W. Tegethoff, “Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe Das Haus Tugendhat,” Springer Wien New York, 1998