Mies Van Der Rohe: 1886-1969 (Basic Architecture Series)
by Claire Zimmerman
from Taschen
Less is more: finding perfection in purity Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886?1969) was one of the founding fathers of modern architecture. The creator of the Barcelona Pavilion (1929), the Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois (1945?1951) and the Seagram Building in New York (1954?1958), Mies was one of the founders of a new architectural style. Well known for his motto ?less is more, ? he sought a kind of refined purity in architectural expression that was not seen in the reduced vocabulary of other Bauhaus members. His goal was not simply building for those of modest income (Existenzminimum) but building economically in terms of sustainability, both in a technical and aesthetical way; the use of industrial materials such as steel and glass were the foundation of this approach. Though the extreme reduction of form and material in his work garnered some criticism, over the years many have tried?mostly unsuccessfully?to copy his original and elegant style. This book explores more than 20 of his projects between 1906 and 1967, from his early work around Berlin to his most important American buildings. Basic Architecture features: ? Each title contains approximately 120 images, including photographs, sketches, drawings, and floor plans ? Introductory essays explore the architect's life and work, touching on family and background as well as collaborations with other architects ? The body presents the most important works in chronological order, with descriptions of client and/or architect wishes, construction problems (why some projects were never executed), and resolutions ? The appendix includes a list of complete or selected works, biography, bibliography and a map indicating the locations ofthe architect's most famous buildings
Mies Van Der Rohe At Work
by Peter Carter
from Phaidon Press
This paperback reprint of a book initially published in 1974 delves into the ideology behind many of Mies van der Rohe's most famous architectural marvels, including the Seagram Building in New York City and the Lake Shore Drive Apartments in Chicago. Van der Rohe, father of the glass and steel modernist skyscraper, affected his field more dramatically than most of his contemporaries. From his earliest years as an apprentice architect in Germany in the first decade of the 20th century, van der Rohe pursued a clear set of ideals about the nature of building. Peter Carter, a student of and later staff architect for van der Rohe, guides readers through his mentor's commitment to structure as the determining factor of form and architecture as an illustration of its civilization. It may seem old hat to today's readers that form follows function, but the notion was very avant-garde during the middle of the century, when van der Rohe was at his height. The book is filled with photographs, building statistics, architectural drawings, and models that paint a clear picture of the philosophy behind these buildings that are such emblems of grace and strength. Quotes from van der Rohe himself--peppered throughout--are particularly insightful: "It is often thought that heaviness is synonymous with strength. In my opinion it is just the opposite." From his high-rise skeleton-frame buildings to landscaping to private homes, this truth is borne out. Mies van der Rohe at Work is perfectly suited for an aficionado of the great architect's work and readers who want to look at and read about great buildings. [192 pages, 300 black-and-white illustrations and biographical chronology] --J.P. Cohen
This paperback reprint of a book initially published in 1974 delves into the ideology behind many of Mies van der Rohe's most famous architectural marvels, including the Seagram Building in New York City and the Lake Shore Drive Apartments in Chicago. Van der Rohe, father of the glass and steel modernist skyscraper, affected his field more dramatically than most of his contemporaries. From his earliest years as an apprentice architect in Germany in the first decade of the 20th century, van der Rohe pursued a clear set of ideals about the nature of building. Peter Carter, a student of and later staff architect for van der Rohe, guides readers through his mentor's commitment to structure as the determining factor of form and architecture as an illustration of its civilization. It may seem old hat to today's readers that form follows function, but the notion was very avant-garde during the middle of the century, when van der Rohe was at his height. The book is filled with photographs, building statistics, architectural drawings, and models that paint a clear picture of the philosophy behind these buildings that are such emblems of grace and strength. Quotes from van der Rohe himself--peppered throughout--are particularly insightful: "It is often thought that heaviness is synonymous with strength. In my opinion it is just the opposite." From his high-rise skeleton-frame buildings to landscaping to private homes, this truth is borne out. Mies van der Rohe at Work is perfectly suited for an aficionado of the great architect's work and readers who want to look at and read about great buildings. [192 pages, 300 black-and-white illustrations and biographical chronology] --J.P. Cohen
Mies Van Der Rohe's Farnsworth House
by Paul Clemence
from Schiffer Publishing
Photographer Paul Clemence celebrates a revered icon of modern architecture, the Farnsworth House, located near Plano, Illinois. This is the only private residence designed by famed modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Striking architetural details are captured in over 70 eye-catching color and black-and-white photographs and drawings. A Foreword by Dirk Lohan poetically reveals the essence of this architectural masterpiece, built in 1951. This book is a must-have for devotees of architecture, design, Modernism, the Bauhaus, Mies van der Rohe, and photography.
Conversations with Mies van der Rohe
from Princeton Architectural Press
It has been said that modernist legend Mies van der Röhe's thirty years spent working in America reflected his most consistent and mature efforts toward achieving his goal of a new architecture for the twentieth century. Focusing on this American period, Conversations with Mies van der Rohe, the latest addition to our Conversations series, gives fresh credence to this claim by presenting the architect’s most important design issues in his own words. In this collection of interviews Mies talks freely about his relationship with clients, the common language he aimed for in his architectural projects, the influences on his work, and the synthesis of architecture and technology that he advanced in his designs and built works.
Conversations with Mies van der Rohe makes an important contribution to the corpus of Mies scholarship. It presents a vivid picture of a master of modernism, bringing his artistic biography to a close while completing the scope of his style in terms of techniques, scale, use of materials, and typology. An essay by Iñaki Ábalos provides a context for these interviews and looks at Mies’s legacy from a contemporary perspective.
Farnsworth House (Architecture in Detail)
by Maritz Vandenberg
from Phaidon Press
Launched in 1991, award-winning Architecture in Detail books focus on individual seminal buildings, celebrating their exceptional character, innovative design or technical virtuosity. Each volume contains a text by a respected author, a sequence of colour and black-and-white photographs, and a set of technical drawings and working details. The Farnsworth House is a seminal Modernist glass-and-steel house by Mies van der Rohe, one of the greatest twentieth-century architects.
West Meets East - Mies van der Rohe
by Werner Blaser
from Birkhäuser Basel
Dieses faszinierende Buch betrachtet die lange Zeit unentdeckten Parallelitäten zwischen der traditionellen Architektur Chinas und Japans und den Bauten von Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Werner Blaser und Johannes Malms zeigen anhand zahlreicher eindrucksvoller Fotografien und mit klugen Essays die konstruktiven Übereinstimmungen und grenzüberschreitenden Gemeinsamkeiten zwischen der westlich-modernen und der östlich-traditionellen Bauweise. »Ein Buch voll von Anregungen, und mit dem Tonreichtum seiner Schwarzweißbilder auch ein Buch der fotografischen Stille.« Die Furche »Gesamtwertung: sehr zu empfehlen.« Berliner Empfehlungen Ökologie & Lernen
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
by Jean-Louis Cohen
from Birkhäuser Basel
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was one of the leading figures of twentieth-century architecture. For architects and many others who are committed to the modernist tradition, he is a pivotal figure. With in-depth, scholarly essays and opulent photographs and plans, this book traces the multifaceted development of his work, including his first Berlin buildings, his villa projects, his work at the Bauhaus in the 1930s, and his American projects of the postwar years.
Jean-Louis Cohen was the director of the Institut français d’architecture until 2003 and is currently a professor at New York University. He has an established reputation as a leading international historian of architecture. His broad and encompassing perspective makes this book a reliable and comprehensive introduction to the work of Mies van der Rohe.
Mies van der Rohe: A Critical Biography
by Franz Schulze
from University Of Chicago Press
"The most comprehensive book ever written about the master designer and, by any measure, the best....This is a genuinely readable book....Because no writer has ever before probed into Mies's life at such depth, we have here the first definitive reconstruction of the architect's personal habits, loves, fears, triumphs, loneliness and (in his old age) agonies."—Paul Gapp, Chicago Tribune
"A herculean, generally successful effort to present Mies's work in terms of both character and context....The substance is impressive and much of the material is fresh and revealing....This book has obviously been a long labor of love and respect for which no source has been left untouched."—Ada Louise Huxtable, New York Times Book Review
"Schulze's excellent book...is absolutely worthy of its subject. Soundly researched, vividly detailed, and hard to fault critically, it is the most complete survey ever written of Mies'[s] life and works....No one else has approached Schulze's achievement in telling the whole story over eight decades."—Allan Temko, San Francisco Chronicle Review
"Schulze has both the gift of an architectural historian able to render Mies's building innovations and that of a biographer able to paint the humanity and shortcomings of the man."—Jane Holtz Kay, Christian Science Monitor
"By its broad scope, its eloquent style, and, above all, its prodigious scholarship, this book clearly establishes itself as an indispensable volume for the library of the serious Mies scholar."—Louis Rocah, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians
"In Schulze's hands Mies is no longer the impassive monolith he has sometimes seemed to be, but a complex human being whose varying moods reflected and affected the vicissitudes of his life and work....Yet, in this model architectural biography, [Schulze] also knows and brilliantly demonstrates the integral nexus of architecture and life."—Thomas S. Hines, Progressive Architecture
"Franz Schulze's Mies van der Rohe: A Critical Biography captivates from the very first paragraph....The writer is a skillful storyteller. In his hands, Mies's life acquires the intensity and dramatic progression of a novel."—Juan Pablo Bonta, Design Book Review
"A revelation....The man who emerges from its pages is not cold and rational but exuberant and illogical."—Donald Davis, Newsweek
"[A] readable, well-researched and sympathetic biography."—Mark Girouard, Washington Post Book World
"The standard life of Mies for some time to come."—William H. Jordy, The New Criterion
"[A] distinguished and eloquent biography."—Paul Goldberger, New York Times
"[A] magnificent biography."—Diana Ketcham, The Oakland Tribune
Mies van der Rohe - Lake Shore Drive Apartments: High-Rise Building / Wohnhochhaus (Mies Van Der Rohe Archive)
by Werner Blaser
from Birkhäuser Basel
Am 860 Lake Shore Drive, in bester Lage direkt am Michigan See, entstand 1948–50 ein zweiteiliges Wohnhochhaus von Mies van der Rohe. Die 26-geschossigen Skelettbauten aus Stahl und Glas sind im rechten Winkel zueinander angeordnet und bestehen aus stockwerkshohen Glasflächen. Die "Lake Shore Drive Apartments” gehören zu den ersten Wohnhochhäusern der Moderne und markieren mit ihrer Wohnfunktion einen wichtigen Schritt in der Geschichte der Architektur. Wie in Band 1 der "Mies-Klassiker” wird die Entwicklung dieses Hochhauses, anhand informativer Texte und reichen Fotomaterials von Werner Blaser, über eine längere Zeitspanne dokumentiert. Ein Essay des Bewohners Masami Takayama vermittelt einen Eindruck der Wohnsituation, Textbeiträge von Mies runden dieses Buch ab.
Mies van der Rohe: The Villas and Country Houses
This detailed and carefully reasoned study of the domestic architecture of Mies van der Rohe is a landmark contribution to contemporary understanding of the great architect's work. It is devoted to a close analysis of Mies' residential architecture, built and unbuilt, from 1923 to 1951. Many of its conclusions are pertinent to the whole of Mies' output.
The book presents penetrating discussions of both the Concrete and the Brick Country House projects, two of the famous Five Projects of the 1920s which made Mies' early reputation; and, among others, the Lange and Esters Houses of 1927-1930; the Barcelona Pavilion and Tugendhat House of 1928-1930; and, in America, plans for a house in Wyoming for the Stanley Resors, and the Farnsworth House of 1946-1951. The analysis and the illustrations demonstrate a continuous development toward realization of the goal Mies himself described: "To bring Nature, houses and people into a higher unity."
The original German language edition accompanied an exhibition organized by the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld, in conjunction with the Mies van der Rohe Archive of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, on the occasion of the public opening of the restored Lange and Esters Houses, now owned by the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum. All of the works exhibited are reproduced in this volume. Dr. Tegethoff's text, based on extensive research in the Mies Archive and other sources, brings to light much new information on the origins of Mies's ideas, his working methods and relationships with clients, as well as the actual planning and structure of the houses.
Wolf Tegethoff is a member of the faculty of the Kunsthistorische Institut of the University of Kiel, Germany.
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