TUGENDHAT HOUSE

LUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHE SI-SHE CHIN ARCH 602 PAPER TWO

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

south garde n

nort h stree t

glas s 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 twostory 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,
provide view of city.

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 has more concrete wall with small horizontal window, and facing south has more glass window to introduce light into house and

privat e space main spac e

concret e wall

some columns in Tugendhat house are hided into wall to divide space for programs. Huge panes of glass covering 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 terrace in lower level in Tugendhat house is another similar element can be found as the main entrance of Barcelona Pavilion. The stairway is parallel to the orientation of

Figure 2 Floor Plan <Source: http://www.pushpullbar.com>

Figure 3 Front Elevation and Rear Elevation <Source: http://www.pushpullbar.com> Figure 4 Side Elevations <Source: http://www.pushpullbar.com>

main building. This design has been pointed out by Mies assistant that is also similar to Le Corbusiers design in Villa Stein in Garches in figure 8: the terrace cut into building while projecting beyond the garden faade, 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 or some outer space can be recognized as rectangles.

Diagram 3: Public v.s. Private Quite 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 structure of skyscraper, glass cladding can be adopted to show structure clearly. The glass wall can be seen as curtain wall that it doesnt 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 hemicycle 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 5 Main Stairway from outside and inside <Source: http://www.architectureweek.com/>

Figure 6 Exterior <Source: http://www.arch.mcgill.ca/>

Diagram 4: Grid Columnar System One of Mies styles that main structure is formed as 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.

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 elements of columns and walls that what gives the building its quality is the proportions, and proportions dont cost anything. For the most part it is the proportions between things; it is not even the things themselves. To communicate 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 Richardsons Crane Memorial Library in diagram 5. The floor plan has strange organization. The private space, such as master bedroom, childrens 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

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

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

Figure 8 the comparison of Le Corbusiers 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 space on the top and main space on the bottom to make main space more closer to garden side in diagram 6. 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 cladding the exterior shows the materiality . The style of simplicity makes Tugendhat House become one of mas- terpiece of contemporary architecture.

UPPER

LEVEL Utility

Garage

Guest roo m

Terrace Hall

Entrance Children Bed room x2

Terrace Servan t stai rway Utility stai rwa y Mater Bed room x2

stai rway

stai rway

Storag e Terrace Servan t

Kitche n

Study Living Room Dining Room Party

Utility

Win ter Garden

Terrac e

stai rwa y stai rwa y Garde n LOWER LEVEL

Diagram 6: the Organization of Programs This 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 demonstrates in this flowchart.

REFERENCE -F. Schulze, Mies Van Der Rohe A Critical Biography, the University of Chicago Press, 1985 -W. Tegethoff, Mies Van Der Rohe the Villas and Country Houses, the Museum of Modern Arts New York, 1985 -H. Wu, A History of Architecture of the 20th Century in the 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