A few years ago I saw a doco on a most beautiful glass & steel home which was built behind the iron curtain in the 30's or 40's and is now happily open for visits.

I've never forgotten the images - but have long forgotten the location so I'm hoping someone can help as I'm travelling to the region this month.

It's not the Dessau museum - it's in a woodland and is on its own - I suspect borders have changed since it was built but it wasn't in West Germany - so could have been East Germany or Czech R?

Any ideas or links welcome - Thanks in advance

S.

Uh oh, I remember something like that too, but can't remember where, exactly... I read about one in the Czech R, but it was outside of Prague. No idea what town, though. Maybe someone else will come up with it... sorry!!

Try googling Gropius - I know there's a house by him outside Boston. Maybe that will lead you to what you're thinking of.

lennyba- Fascinating! I had no idea there's a Gropius House near Boston. We'll be heading there for a visit in the near future. Thanks!

sean and yk:


The Walter Gropius home in Lincoln (near Concord) is quite a lovely piece of work. My brother-in-law (an I.I.T grad)studied and worked with Walter, establishing Architects Collaborative in Cambridge. Richard Brooker (BIL) lives in a lovely home in Concord, near Walden Pond, and has long since retired from the firm (which did some outstanding work in Europe and the middle east...a university in Rome, a univ. in Teheran (!!)...some others I don't recall).

stu t. (of course, the Bauhaus in Berlin is not to be missed while in that world class city)

Sean...I didn't realize there was such a fine web page...but here it is...http://tinyurl.com/43k4h9

yk - a good friend of mine does tours there on weekends. Let me know if you end up going.

This is the original Bauhaus in Dessau - a university. I once had the opportunity to sleep within the main building (besides attending a conference there). It is now open to the public:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ca...sau?uselang=de

These are the "Meisterhäuser" - single family homes for the "masters" (Bauhaus University professors), also in Dessau:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ca...ser?uselang=de

This is the "Stahlhaus" (steel house) in Dessau:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...s_Dessau_3.JPG

This is "Haus Fieger", a private home, in Dessau:

http://www.bauhausstadt.de/Bauhausba..._fieger_0.html

This is the "Kornhaus" in Dessau, a restaurant building:

http://www.bauhausstadt.de/Bauhausba...rie_kornhaus_8

Have you found it?

Dessau is certainly worth a visit - 1:30 from Berlin.

You may be thinking of the Tugendhat House in Brno, CZ by Mies van der Rohe.

tower & lennyba-

Thanks so much for the information. See, I do learn something new on Fodors! We *might* go visit it this Sunday afternoon if we have time, if not, then most likely the following weekend.

yk:

Do you live in Boston, or just visiting? The fall foliage season has started from what Boston area friends have told me..usually begins in upper New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont about this time.
If you can "catch"..it's most memorable and photogenic.

I'm originally from Quincy (south of Boston).

stu t.

stu t, yes, we live just outside of Boston. But it'll still be nice to head out to Lincoln, Walden Pond area to see the foliage.

Sorry, seanLorraine, for semi-hijacking this thread.

Cheers TcukH - 'zackly the house I was after - thank you so much - it's now bookmarked in concrete.

If anyone has been - please feel free to drop a note.



S.

I haven't been to the Tugendhat House, but it's on the list of things to do.

It's a Unesco World Heritage site, by the way, but is currently not in good shape. I first read about the house in an NYT article a year or two ago.

I guess the standard Mies house in the US is the Farnsworth House near Chicago. That's on the list of things to do too, but I just haven't gotten around to it.

Then there's also Philip Johnson's Glass House, but tours appear to be booked well in advance (as in, one year in advance).

lennyba- Thank you again for bringing Gropius House to my attention. DH & I went yesterday, and it was just fabulous. Our guide (an older gentleman) was so good, so knowledgeable, that our tour ran almost 1/2 hr over time - of course we didn't mind that at all. Just a brilliant house. We may take the night tour some day.

I'm so glad you liked it, yk! Too bad you didn't have my friend as a guide - that would have been a neat Fodor's connection! I'm looking forward to seeing it someday myself.