Grete Tugendhat’s cousin, Ernst Löw-Beer (the brother of the collector of Asian art Fritz Löw-Beer), had a family house constructed on Kalvodova street in Brno-Pisárky in the year 1935. The authors were the Viennese architects Rudolf Baumfeld and Norbert Schlesinger. In terms of its nobility, fluid arrangement of the living space and refined details it recalls to a certain degree Villa Tugendhat, although not achieving its level of excellence in terms of the overall artistic and technical dimensions. Nevertheless, this house ranks among the most remarkable villa structures not only within Brno, but in Czechoslovakia as a whole at the time, in terms of its built-in furniture and cladding from cherry wood, its elegant lighting from the Lobmeyr company, the atypical metal work on the windows and doors as well as the modern air conditioning system and the impressive roof terrace with its lovely view. The building consists of a remarkable example of the Viennese villa and interior culture of the 1920s and 1930s with obvious influences from Adolf Loos in terms of the marble and wood surfaces as well as the lively colours of the floors and walls. Inspiration could have been drawn from the Beer house on Wenzgasse street in Hietzing by Josef Frank and Oskar Wlach (1929) and without a doubt additionally from the Brno Villa of Fritz and Ernst’s cousin Grete Tugendhat.
Iveta Černá, Vila Ernsta Löw-Beera v Brně. In: Jan Sedlák (ed.), Slavné brněnské vily, Praha: Foibos 2006, s. 103-105
