Tugendhat villa Brno

As part of the second renovation of Villa Tugendhat, LASSELSBERGER, s.r.o. manufactured replicas of RAKO original wall and floor tiles. The intention of architects, restorers of ceramics, and the RAKO brand manufacturer was to achieve, as close as possible, the appearance, and technical parameters of the original tiles.

"From the original samples removed from the walls and floors of the villa, we were immediately able to see a difference between the production technology of that time, and current capabilities of state-of-the-art and powerful technology. As everyone is glad to look into the history of different trends in the development of ceramic designs, every ceramist recalls the old good procedures, which today's generation of ceramists can only learn  about from old textbooks, or information received from senior ceramists,” adds Ing. František Oujiří CSc., who participated with his colleagues in the development of tiles, and comments the whole process. "The same history can be experienced from the original samples of the tiles removed from walls. These tiles were originally manufactured with a double firing method from raw material mixtures, called kaolinitic bodies, whose white colour was so typical and reputable for the then Czechoslovak ceramic glazed interior wall tiles. Dimensional accuracy of the tiles produced at that time was the second typical and world-renowned feature. This accuracy was achieved by calibration of tiles on machinery developed on the basis of Czechoslovak patents, and manufactured in Horní Bříza. The history of the recovered samples was also evident from the special treatment of glazes, called “hairline cracking” caused by moisture increase in the kaolinitic body.” So, it was apparent that the production of replicas must be a combination of both procedures, applied to current technological capabilities.