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Mies Van Der Rohe: Theory of Architecture
Mies Van Der Rohe: Theory of Architecture
Mies Van Der Rohe: Theory of Architecture
INTRODUCTION
Nationality: German-American Birth Date: March 27, 1886 Birth Place: Aachen Date of Death: August 17, 1969 Place of Death: Chicago
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, along with Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture. He created an influential twentieth-century architectural style, stated with extreme clarity and simplicity. His mature buildings made use of modern materials such as industrial steel and plate glass to define austere but elegant spaces. He strived for an architecture with a minimal framework of structural order balanced against the implied freedom of open space. He called his buildings "skin and bones" architecture. He is known for his use of the aphorisms less is more and "God is in the details".
HIS PHILOSOPHY
The self-educated Mies painstakingly studied the great philosophers and thinkers of the past and of the day. He adopted an ambitious lifelong mission to create not only a new style, but also a solid intellectual foundation for a new architectural language that could be used to represent the new era of technological invention and production. He saw a need for an architecture expressive of and in harmony with his epoch, just as Gothic architecture was for an era of spiritualism. He applied a disciplined design process using rational thought to achieve his goal. He believed that architecture communicated the meaning and significance of the culture in which it exists. More than perhaps any other practicing pioneer of modernism, Mies used philosophy as a basis for his work.
PLAN The Farnsworth House, built between 1945 and 1951 for Dr. Edith Farnsworth as a weekend retreat, is a platonic perfection of order gently placed in spontaneous nature in Plano, Illinois. Just right outside of Chicago in a 10-acre secluded wooded site with the Fox River to the south, the glass pavilion takes full advantage of relating to its natural surroundings, achieving Mies concept of a strong relationship between the house and nature.
Its unsurpassed views through transparent walls show how a man-made object best relates to nature. (Fig. 2)
Fig. 1 Fig. 2
For temporary exhibitions a noble space five times the height of man, would be formed by an extensive slab floating over a podium. The interior would be unobstructed allowing a free arrangement of artworks and display panels to suite any occasion. (Fig. 3)
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
The permanent exhibition areas are on a lower floor beneath the podium, together with the administrative and functional rooms. (Fig. 4) The cross section through the gallery shows the main entrance on the left and the sculpture garden on the right. (Fig. 5) Main Entrance Sculpture Garden
PLAN
PLAN
The significance of this work is a pioneer curtain-wall expression as well as a fulfillment of the all-glass skyscraper schemes proposed by Mies three decades earlier.
SEAGRAMS BUILDING
The inescapable drama of the Seagram Building in a city already dramatic with crowded skyscrapers lies in its unbroken height of bronze and dark glass juxtaposed to a granite-paved plaza below. The site of the building on Park Avenue, an indulgence in open space unprecedented in midtown Manhattan real estate, has given the building an aura of special domain. The use of extruded bronze mullions and bronze spandrels together with a dark amber-tinted glass has unified the surface with color.
PLAN Mies wanted a complete regularity in the appearance of the building. One aspect of a faade that he disliked was the irregularity in appearance when blinds have been drawn. Inevitably, people using different windows will draw blinds to different heights, making the building look disorganized. To reduce this, Mies used blinds that only worked in three positions fully open, halfway open/closed, or fully closed
One of Mies van der Rohe's last building erected on the Illinois Institute of Technology campus is Crown Hall, a superb example of his clear span designs. The roof is suspended from the underside of four steel plate girders which in turn are carried by eight exterior steel columns. These columns are spaced 60 feet apart with the roof cantilevered.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://www.greatbuildings.com/cgi-bin/gbcdrawing.cgi/New_National_Gallery.html/New_National_Plan_2.html http://www.designboom.com/portrait/mies/bg.html http://www.greatbuildings.com/architects/Ludwig_Mies_van_der_Rohe.ht ml http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/fa267/mies.html http://en.wikiarquitectura.com/index.php/Farnsworth_House http://www.archdaily.com/59719/ad-classics-the-farnsworth-house-miesvan-der-rohe/ http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/New_National_Gallery.html Adelyn Perez, May 2010, AD classics: 860-880 Lake Shore Drive/ Mies van der Rohe, http://www.archdaily.com/59487/ad-classics-860-880-lakeshore-drive-mies-van-der-rohe/ Adelyn Perez, May 2010, AD classics: Seagram Building/ Mies van der Rohe, http://www.archdaily.com/59412/seagram-building-mies-van-derrohe/ http://www.aviewoncities.com/nyc/seagrambuilding.htm http://www.miessociety.org/legacy/projects/crown-hall/