The Glass Room

of the character of architect in e Glass Room (2009) establishes connection with
the pioneers of Modernist architecture and most notably with Villa Tugendhat situated
in Brno. e ambiguous fusion of idea and material, of system and playfulness, of
accentuated virility and cool, objective reasoning is clarified only partially by the act
of engaging the characters in the dialogue with their real life models and the author’s
employment of parallelism. It may be understood on the basis of the affinity with the
phenomenological conception of dwelling and building of Martin Heidegger whose
vision of architecture echoes the persuasion of architects such as Le Corbusier or Ludwig
Mies van der Rohe. e aim of this paper is to decipher the aspect of building “as poetic
measure taking” and elucidate the firm bond between material and spiritual dimension
of architecture mediated with a surprising ease by means of Mawer’s fictitious rendition
of Czech 20th century history seen through and reflected on the walls of the Glass Room,
its metaphorical counterpart.