Antonín Novák will present the Last Brno Collection today

Villa Tugendhat, Less is More
On the situation surrounding the reconstruction of the Brno villa by Mies van der Rohe
Ludvík Grym, Jan Sapák, Jindřich Škrabal

On May 3, 2007, as part of the lecture series "Brno in Prague," Antonín Novák from the Brno studio DRNH was supposed to speak. However, due to the relevance of the reconstruction problem of the Brno Villa Tugendhat, the members of the studio decided to give space to architects L. Grym, J. Sapák, and J. Škrabal, who have long been engaged with this issue. The lecture will primarily focus on the essence of Mies's architecture, from which the character of the subsequent repairs justifiable before the world should also emerge. "Less is more" applied to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and his architecture, and it must apply just as urgently to the reconstruction of Villa Tugendhat. The repair of an irreplaceable, world-renowned monument must be educated and sensitive. Any reckless experiments could destroy it.

“In deciding to hand over the date of our lecture Last Collection – Atelier DRNH to the collective of Brno colleagues dealing long-term with Villa Tugendhat – J. Škrabal, J. Sapák, L. Grym, we did not make this decision after ‘mature consideration.’ Firstly, we do not quite know when such consideration is indeed ‘mature,’ and secondly, we had already been preparing several projects for this lecture with the help of externals for several months as a demonstration of a possible approach to the interaction of the object with the landscape and ecological principles in designing residential buildings. The considerably tendentious and distorted perception of the situation regarding the project preparation for the reconstruction of the Brno villa by Mies van der Rohe published in professional journals made us think about the given situation, its reasons, and perhaps even the possibilities of remedying it. We decided on a rapid and active approach. We gathered several respected personalities from Czech architecture in Prague and Brno to sign a petition directed to the leadership of the city of Brno in support of the aforementioned team and handed our Prague lecture date to these Brno colleagues, thereby allowing them to present their contribution demonstrating their professional expertise, integrity, and long-standing interest in the given topic. We believe that the dramaturgy of the series Brno in Prague will thus be enriched with a highly relevant topic and a great lecture, and we apologize to the organizers for the difficulties arising from our decision. The prepared projects originally intended for presenting our studio's approach will be published in the form of a virtual exhibition on the archiweb portal by the summer of this year. We thank everyone for their understanding.”