At the beginning of the 1860s the first villa colony — a housing estate with detached houses for the wealthy — was built in Brno in the slopes of Černá Pole above Lužánky Park. Important from the local point of view it also represents one of the first Central European sites fitting the typology. It was erected in a space providing a beautiful vista of the city and only a few minutes from the centre. By 1863 the contractor Josef Arnold had designed and built four houses (Kaiser, Arnold, Giskra and Adamčik), probably according to the urban-planning concept of Heinrich von Ferstel, one of the architects of the Viennese Ringstrasse. At the beginning of the 20th century the monumental composition of Schodová street developed there and the site was gradually built up with detached and rented apartment houses (e.g. the Löw-Beer, Brandstätter, Himmelreich House). As one of the most significant 20th century houses which has become part of the history of Word architecture, the Tugendhat House (1929-1930) has amplified the genius loci of this prime site.
The article can be downloaded on the Czech version of our web pages.
Dagmar Černoušková, The genius loci of the slope above Lužánky Park.On the first “villa estate” in Brno. In: 67 bulletin Moravské galerie v Brně (Bulletin of the Moravian Gallery in Brno), 2011, pp. 70-79
