Ludwig Mies van der Rohe 1886-1969

1. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe1886-1969 “Only now can we divide, open and join space with the landscape, in order to fulfill modern man's need for space. Simplicity of construction, clarity of tectonic means and purity of materials become the bearers of a new beauty“. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, 1933

2. The chronological contextof Mies’ architecture

3. The context of his architecture Geographical context: Mies van der Rohe was a German-born American designer and architect whose practice was based originally in Berlin, Germany, where he worked for 31 years. He migrated to Chicago, USA in 1937 and taught and practiced at the Illinois Institute of Technology for another 31 years. Chicago Dessau and Berlin

4. Context continued… Historical context: • Walter Gropius was a major pioneer of the modern movement. Through his teaching he became one of the most influential designers of the 20th century. His most significant building is the Bauhaus Building at Dessau, constructed in 1925-26. • Gropius was a second generation modernist and a contemporary of his fellow German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, both of whom were architecture students of Peter Behrens from 1908-10. • In 1919 Walter Gropius established the Bauhaus, which became the most famous and influential design school of the 20th century. The creation of the Bauhaus was an extension of the Deutscher Werkbund, a group of German architects, designers and industrialists who sought to merge artistic design and creation with industrial mass-production to produce affordable, high quality, machine-made products and appliances. Watch this short video of the context of the Bauhaus. • In 1928 Gropius resigned as director of the Bauhaus and in 1937 he emigrated to the United States (Mies van der Rohe, the third and last Bauhaus director, had already emigrated there in 1933 after the Nazi’s closed the Bauhaus.) Gropius lectured at Harvard University in Cambridge Massachusetts and he later established The Architects Collaborative (TAC), a major architectural firm, one of their significant buildings being the former Pan Am Building, (now the MetLife Building) 1958-63, (recently voted by New Yorkers as the building they most wanted demolished!) • Gropius always adopted a collaborative approach to design. While studying under Peter Behrens he met Adolf Meyer with whom he worked on the design and construction of their first significant building, the Fagus Shoe-last Factory, 1911-13, and at the Bauhaus. He employed the most radical and innovative artist-designers to staff the Bauhaus, including Marcel Breuer who he continued working with in the United States.

5. Context continued… Social context: • “Together let us desire, conceive, and create the new [building] of the future, which will embrace architecture and sculpture and painting in one unity and which will one day rise toward heaven from the hands of a million workers.” This statement by Gropius indicates his concern for the Gesamtkunstwerk, the building stylistically unified with all its furnishings and fixtures. It also reveals the influence of the Dutch De Stijl movement which sought to unite the visual arts of architecture, painting and sculpture into one seamless environment. This concept, derived from William Morris and the English Arts and Crafts movement, and reflected in the more recent organic architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, was embraced by Gropius, but with an industrial aesthetic and means of production in mind. • Walter Gropius embraced the philosophy of his teacher Peter Behrens (and that of other members of the Deutscher Werkbund) to affect a change in the German social structure from a class-divided society to an industrially-based, egalitarian mass society. This is evident in the types of buildings that Gropius chose to design; buildings for the masses, for the workers: factories, schools, apartment blocks, and commercial buildings. This rather left-wing socialist philosophy eventually led to the closure of Gropius’ Bauhaus by the Nazi’s in 1933. Bauhaus ideas were however embraced by communist Russia and the commercial, mass-production economy of American. • Like Peter Behrens before him, Gropius’ wanted to reconcile artistic design with modern materials and industrial methods of production. He wanted to create well-designed, useful, everyday objects and appliances that were accessible and affordable for the masses. This required mass-production, which in turn necessitated objects be made, at least in part, of industrial materials and standardised components. Standardisation became a design issue at this time because it limited the freedom and scope of artist-designers, and not all Bauhaus creations made it to the consumer mass market.

6. Significant Mies buildings. German Pavilion, 1929 The Tugendhat House, 1930 Crown Hall, 1950 Seagram Building, 1958 Lake Shore Apartments, 1951 The Farnsworth House, 1950

7. Stylistic features of the German Pavilion, Barcelona, 1929 This exhibition pavilion, commissioned by the German government and built shortly before Mies became director of the Bauhaus, is one of the purest expressions of modernist design. • Eight chrome-plated cruciform columns support the cantilevered reinforced concrete roof slab. • Space flows continuously throughout, no sense of enclosure, no distinction between indoor/outdoor. • Opaque and transparent plate glass partitions, marble, onyx and travertine walls and paving, chrome-plated steel frames for windows and furniture. • Water pools and highly polished glass and marble reflect light and structure which de-materialises the structure. • Geometric, abstract, asymmetrical, minimalist, clinical, rational, classical The context of the building and more images of it are shown here. Explore an animation of the composition and space of the Barcelona Pavilion here and here.

8. The Tugendhat House, Brno, Czech Republic, 1930 This house is considered a masterpiece of Mies’ European period. It is the realisation in practical, domestic terms of his German Pavilion. Visit the official website of this house here to complete the following: Why was the location of the house ‘favourable’ and what THREE things can you say about its owners? Identify FIVE features of the house, each made of a different luxurious or high quality material. How many levels does the house have? State TWO functions of any of the ‘rooms’ at each level. List FIVE different types of furniture, fittings or fixtures that compliment the design of the house. From the images of the Tugendhat House below, and the video clips here and here, list EIGHT stylistic features that became typical of the ‘high modernist’ International Style:

9. Stylistic features of Mies’ German period ■metal frames ■asymmetrical composition ■horizontal windows ■flat roofs ■ transparency ■internal skeletal structures ■cantilevered elements ■ white walls ■open, fluid space ■glass ‘curtain’ walls ■windows flush with wall plane ■functionalist, purist, industrial, machine aesthetic ■ standardised, modular components ■lightweight, floating effect ■exposed, utilitarian fixtures

10. “Less is More” as head of the architecture department at the Armour Institute of Technology, soon to be renamed the Illinois Institute of Technology. At his inaugural lecture as director of the department in 1938, Mies stated: “In its simplest form architecture is rooted in entirely functional considerations, but it can reach up through all degrees of value to the highest sphere of spiritual existence into the realm of pure art.” This sentence summarized what had become Mies van der Rohe’s consistent approach to design: to begin with functional considerations of structure and materials, then to refine the detailing and expression of those materials until they transcended their technical origins to become a pure art of structure and space.

11. Lake Shore Drive Apartments, Chicago, 1951 The Gropius’ wanted their American home to reflect its surroundings and traveled around New England studying its vernacular architecture. In designing the house, Gropius combined traditional elements of

12. The Farnsworth House, Plano, Illinois, 1950 Visit the house here to answer these questions: • S • S • G • A • H • T • W • L

13. Stylistic features of Mies’ American period ■metal frames ■asymmetrical composition ■horizontal windows ■flat roofs ■ transparency ■internal skeletal structures ■cantilevered elements ■ white walls ■open, fluid space ■glass ‘curtain’ walls ■windows flush with wall plane ■functionalist, purist, industrial, machine aesthetic ■ standardised, modular components ■lightweight, floating effect ■exposed, utilitarian fixtures

14. Examples of Mies’ furniture Above: Day bed, 1923 Left: Barcelona Chair, 1929 Barcelona Stool, 1929 Pavilion Chaise, 1924 Barstool, 1924 D42 Armchair, 1927