In this episode of An Architect’s Perspective, I’m joined by architect and designer Eva

Jiřičná to revisit Villa Tugendhat, Mies van der Rohe’s 1930 masterwork in Brno. We

explore how the house’s radical openness, material refinement, and structural precision

helped shape the language of early modernism - and how its influence continues to ripple

through contemporary architecture.

Eva reflects on her visits to the house, her Czech roots, and what Mies’s architecture taught

her about space, clarity, and light. This is a conversation about discipline, elegance, and the

quiet ambition of one of modernism’s most iconic homes.

Key Topics:

- Mies van der Rohe’s revolutionary use of glass and steel

- Spatial clarity as a form of elegance

- The ethics of early modernism — simplicity as principle

- How Villa Tugendhat influenced Eva Jiřičná’s own design philosophy

- Restoration, memory, and the architectural legacy of modernism

Guest Info:

Eva Jiřičná is a Czech-born architect and designer known for her precision, use of glass

and steel, and elegant spatial compositions. She has worked across Europe and is

internationally recognised for her commercial and residential projects.

Quotes from the Episode:

On early modernism:

"It wasn’t about aesthetics. It was about how people could live — with honesty, with clarity,

with light."

On Mies’s restraint:

"To use marble, steel, and glass — but with such discipline. That’s where the beauty lies."

On architectural legacy:

"The house doesn’t shout. It speaks quietly, with conviction. That’s the kind of modernism I

believe in."

Website: www.jameshamiltonarchitects.com

Instagram: @jameshamiltonarchitects

Production: OneFinePlay.com

This episode of An Architect’s Perspective takes you directly inside Villa Tugendhat, Mies van der Rohe’s landmark of early modernism, completed in 1930 in Brno, Czech Republic. It’s a house that stripped away ornament and introduced a new kind of spatial order — radical in its time, and still breathtaking today.

I walk the site, tracing how Mies used structure, material, and movement to create a home of extraordinary grace. The famous retractable glass wall, the flowing interior plan, and the onyx partition all speak to a design philosophy that values restraint, logic, and light.

This is early modernism before the clichés — architecture as clarity, not austerity. Not a machine for living, but a place for thinking, pausing, and seeing.

Key Topics:

● The use of structural grids to shape movement

● Light as an architectural material

● The philosophical underpinnings of Mies’s design

● What Villa Tugendhat reveals about early modernist priorities

● Architecture as experience, not statement

Quotes from the Episode:

On structure and space: "The grid here isn’t restrictive. It’s musical — it gives rhythm, not rigidity."

On the retractable glass wall: "With one movement, the house opens to the garden. It’s theatrical, but also utterly practical."

On design intention: "Mies didn’t just make a house. He made a way of thinking visible."

Production: OneFinePlay.com

Website: www.jameshamiltonarchitects.com

Instagram: @jameshamiltonarchitects

In this episode, I sit down with Ab Rogers, designer and son of Richard Rogers, to revisit the house he grew up in - Wimbledon House, a prototype of high-tech modernism designed by his father in 1968.

This conversation moves between memory and material. Ab shares what it was like to live inside a building that was also an architectural experiment - a modular steel frame dropped into a garden, with transparent walls and exposed services.

We talk about what the house meant then, and how it feels now. How it blurred the lines between home and studio, and how its spirit — open, adaptable, unpretentious - still shapes Ab’s own approach to design today.

Key Topics:

● Growing up inside Richard Rogers’ radical domestic experiment

● The house as a testing ground for flexibility and transparency

● How the logic of industry met the softness of family life

● Living with architecture that doesn’t hide its workings

● Ab’s reflections on high-tech modernism - and where it led

Guest Info: Ab Rogers is a designer, educator, and creative director. He is the founder of Ab Rogers Design and was formerly Head of Interior Design at the Royal College of Art. He grew up in Wimbledon House, which was designed by his father Richard Rogers.

Quotes from the Episode:

On the house as idea: "It was a place where architecture and family life happened at the same time — and didn’t always agree."

On openness: "You couldn’t hide anything. Emotions, furniture, structure — it was all part of the architecture."

On growing into the space: "I thought it was normal. Only later did I realise we were living inside a prototype."

Website: www.jameshamiltonarchitects.com

Instagram: @jameshamiltonarchitects

Podcast Production: OneFinePlay.com