After €5.9M+ restoration, the popular tourist attraction reopens for public after two years on March 6. Don’t miss “the most beautiful interior room in modern architecture”.

Admission tickets to villa Tugendhat tours need to be booked online. It’s quite easy and there is still no big husle. That may be because Brno City Museum set the price quite high.

There are two kinds of tours: standard one for CZK 300 (180) and a “technical” tour for CZK 350 (210), which gives you chance to see the formerly unaccessible facilities in the building, like the laundry room and the dark room (which is more interesting than it seems). Family ticket are available for CZK 690 (standard) and CZK 805 (technical). If you want only see the garden, you may buy the ticket at the place – but info on price is not available yet.

Villa Tugendhat was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and built between 1928 and 1930 for Fritz Tugendhat and his wife Greta. Sadly, they had to escape Czechoslovakia in 1938 and have never come back since.

It is a breathtaking, heart-calming piece of modern architecture. I love the living room, with the famous onyx wall, large open space and huge windows that make you believe the house is actually sailing above Brno, towards the cathedral.

The building was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2001.

Take a look inside (the video shows the villa before its restoration):

The reopening got covered by The Guradian: read the article and visit the gallery.

One of the Tugendhats’ daughters, Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat, works as a professor of art history at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.

“For me, this is actually the most beautiful interior room in modern architecture,” she said. “Usually, it’s only in old churches that a room has such a meditative effect.”

The new bus stop shelter got a huge attention.

Bus stop Loosova st. at Lesná quarter got a new ass-kicking shelter. It resembles an unrealised, controversial project of a new Czech National Library building for Prague, designed five years ago by world-famous Czech architect Jan Kaplický.

The new National library building was supposed to be the first new important public building built after the fall of communism twenty years ago. Jan Kaplický won the international competition with his radical futurist project in 2006, however the construction was blocked by conservative politicians ruling Prague. Kaplický died three years later, on the very day his daughter was born. (Read The Independent obituary and see some visualizations of the new library.)

The shelter is covered with a special anti-graffiti coating.

The project was not forgotten. The idea of building a bus station shelter resembling the iconic “octopus” shape originates from Pepsi: Refresh Your World campaign and was sponsored by the beverage maker. The new shelter is a second controversial object in the streets of Brno in the last year, after the famous Brno cock clock an Náměstí svobody Sq. Locals are worried that it may face the same fate as the old shelter, which was destroyed by drunkyards, and some Kaplicky’s admirers think that the shape was inspired by the architecture of old Prague and can not “work” as a shelter in rather modernist Brno.

This eye was supposed to look over Prague. Now it is observing a suburb of Brno.

The placement of the station is kind of ironic, as it can be found at Loosova st. Adolf Loos was a Brno-born architect who famously claimed that “an ornament is a crime” and is admired for his simple, functionalist buildings. Also, the original library was supposed to be built at Letná hill in Prague, while in Brno it is located at Lesná quarter.

Map

Larger map

Tram café proposed by Tomáš Rusín and Ivan Wahla (raw.cz). A nice way how to revitalize abandoned tram station at Obilní trh sq., designed in the 1920s by Oskar Poříska.

Dozens of young architects are presenting their mostly low-cost solutions for improving the quality of life in Brno in former prison at Soudní st. in Cejl quarter. The admission-free exhibition (Czech website) shows a total shitload of creativity.

The desolated tram station (June 2011).

Náměstí svobody sq. + villa Tugendhat + fireworks. Everything Brno got on one place, for your convenience. I just miss the superbikes. (by Miss3.cz)

The former prison itself is a beautiful, abandoned place.

The “Urban interventions” exhibiton closes on June 30, so do not dare to miss it. It is opened daily except Monday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. See the venue on a map.

A wooden wall separating the dining room from the rest of the floor. Source: ČT

The restoration of villa Tugendhat has led to another interesting story. A beautiful interior wall, stolen from the villa Tugendhat dining room by Gestapo in the 1940s, has been considered lost for good for the last 70 years. That changed few days ago, when Brno-based historian Miroslav Ambroz found the original macassar wood wall, cut into pieces, paneling the canteen of the Faculty of Law at Veveří st.

The building of the Faculty of Law served as a local gestapo headquarters during the WW2. According to the website of Czech television, it is quite likely that the original wall will be restored and moved back to villa Tugendhat. You may see it next year, when the €6.3M reconstruction finishes.

Villa Tugendhat was confiscated in the autumn of 1939, as its owners were Jews. Most of the original equipment has been stolen or destroyed. The bulding remains to be a property of the Czech state. In 2001, it was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

AZ tower is going to be located next to M-Palace and Heršpická st.

As soon as in 2013, the panorama of the city will be damaged by white-orange AZ Tower, the highest skyscraper in the Czech republic.

Company “Properity” launches the construction works on April 20. AZ Tower is going to be 109 meters high, carry 32 floors and to overlook all other buildings in the southern centre, including M-Palace and Spielberk office centre. It will most likely be the the most remarkable thing to be seen when arriving to Brno from Vienna, replacing the old and boring combo of the Petrov cathedral and Špilberk castle.

Funny thing is that instead of protecting the cityscape, the town council wanted the original 80 meters project to be higher, to “give” Brno the highest Czech building. As if Prague had some sort of penis envy.

Anyway, renowed architect Eva Jiřičná works on even higher skyscraper next to AZ Tower. It seems that developers have learned nothing from the recent (ongoing?) crisis which had stopped the construction of Spielberk office centre skyscapers for more than two years.

Jurkovič house. Source: moravska-galerie.cz

One of the Brno’s most significant, villas, Jurkovič house, has been restored and it opens to general public on April 1.

Famous architect Dušan Jurkovič designed and built this house for himself in 1906 in Žabovřesky quarter. It has had several owners since that time – but luckily, they all cared well about the building.

Several years ago, it was bought by Moravian Gallery and restored.

You can book a tour in English or German, both for just CZK 130.

Vlněna in 2006

Vlněna in the late 2010s

It seems that factory “Vlněna”, located next to the main train station and Vaňkovka shopping mall, will simply go down the memory hole. According to the ČT24 TV station, the owner/investor has found out that creating loft apartments and protecting the industrial feel of the area would cost more than what would be rentable. Which is perfectly understandable. But that does not make it less sad.

Vlněna is located at Přízová st. and it has been a part of Brno’s history – as it was one of the most important factories in the times when Brno was called “Moravian Manchester”.

Map

Larger map

Edison Centre

A small power station built by Thomas Alva Edison’s company had been located in the very place until a recent time – so the name of the building and its shape is a kind of tribute to the famous inventor.

The glass-covered Edison centre will contain offices, shopping venues, apartments and garages. It will be built by various investors cooperating under “K+Vlhká” brand.

Via: Brněnský deník Rovnost.

Map

Zvětšit mapu

Sticker of the new national library on a window of Pomalý bar in Brno.

The work of the probably best-known Czech architect Jan Kaplický (1937-2009) is displayed in riding hall of Lednice castle (UNESCO heritage site, located 40 km southern of Brno).

The exhibition is called “In his own way” and shows models of buildings designed by Mr Kaplický and his studio Future Systems.

According to iDnes.cz, the exhibition will be open daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. until spring 2011.

Kaplický had a quite usual story of Czech artists and businessmen: he left Czechoslovakia in 1968 and became successful in Great Britain. He had been almost unknown in the Czech republic, until he won the international competiton for the new national library in Prague. Sadly, his radical project caused sort of panic among local politicians and was cancelled. Kaplický died last year, on the day his wife gave a birth to their daughter.

Click here to launch the virtual tour!

After six years of development, Masaryk university finally finished its new university quarter, located in neighborhood Bohunice. Some of the institutions have already moved there, some are moving right now. The campus will serve mostly the Faculty of medicine and Faculty of sport studies.

Click on the image to enjoy a nice virtual town of the modern (well, actualy post-modern) quarter. For more information about the campus, visit the offical webpage of Masaryk University.

You may also check out a gallery at MUNI website or a gallery at Wikimedia Commons.

Map

Larger map

One of the proposed looks of the new main station.

The plan of building a new main station in the “south centre” (next to Zvonařka bus station) got a blow that may be fatal – nobody knows if the project would have political support in 2014 and if EU is going to fund it anyway.

The council of quarter Královo Pole wants a new, modern railway station. Czech architect Petr Parolek (FA Parolli studio) came up with a beautiful project of a giant odonata:

Visualisation of a new railway station in district Královo Pole (source: denik.cz)

I think this is way amazing! Actually, it may be one of the most beautiful buildings in the Czech republic. However, as the piece of organic architecture would cost €27M+, the council has to solve the funding first.