Misplaced Pages

#148851

61-668: The Barcelona chair is a chair designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich , for the German Pavilion at the International Exposition of 1929 , hosted by Barcelona , Catalonia , Spain . The chair was first used in Villa Tugendhat , a private residence, designed by Mies in Brno ( Czech Republic ). The frame was initially designed to be bolted together but was redesigned in 1950 using stainless steel, which allowed

122-558: A cost of $ 18 million and three years after Mies death. It is the central facility of the District of Columbia Public Library (DCPL), and is his only realized library and his only building in Washington D.C. Mies, often in collaboration with Lilly Reich, designed modern furniture pieces using new industrial technologies that have become popular classics, such as the Barcelona chair and table,

183-567: A glass house. Technological limits meant that Mies's vision for a "skin and bones" architecture, where the steel frame was exposed internally and externally could never be fully realized. Mies also inspired the minimalism movement which fused Japanese architecture with Zen gardens . Mies van der Rohe died on August 17, 1969, from esophageal cancer caused by his smoking habit. After cremation, his ashes were buried near Chicago's other famous architects in Chicago 's Graceland Cemetery . His grave

244-510: A great deal of time and effort leading the architecture program at Illinois Institute of Technology. Mies served on the initial Advisory Board of the Graham Foundation in Chicago. His own work as architect focused on intensive personal involvement in design efforts to create prototype solutions for building types. In 1961, a program at Columbia University's School of Architecture celebrated

305-533: A modern Arts and Crafts movement in Europe. Mies and Le Corbusier later acknowledged the lasting impact Frank Lloyd Wright 's Wasmuth Portfolio had after it was exhibited in Berlin. Mies's first US commission was the interior of Philip Johnson 's New York apartment, in 1930. Starting in 1930, Mies served as the last director of the faltering Bauhaus, at the request of his colleague and competitor Gropius. In 1932,

366-432: A modern colonnade . This configuration created a feeling of light, openness, and freedom of movement at the ground level that became the prototype for countless new high rises designed both by Mies's office and his followers. Although now acclaimed and widely influential as an urban design feature, Mies had to convince Bronfman's bankers that a taller tower with significant "unused" open space at ground level would enhance

427-463: A more efficient use of materials. In architecture, this concept translates into streamlined structures, rational use of space and careful attention to layout and materials. Modern architecture saw an evolution of this concept, with architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright , who, while taking a different approach, also advocated simplicity and integration with the environment. The principle has influenced various fields such as fashion, art, music and even

488-429: A parallel experimental effort. He joined his avant-garde peers in the long-running search for a new style that would be suitable for the modern industrial age. The weak points of traditional styles had been under attack by progressive theorists since the mid-nineteenth century, primarily for the contradictions of hiding modern construction technology with a facade of ornamented traditional styles. The mounting criticism of

549-451: A pioneer of modernism, who adapted this style in his architectural creations to emphasize beauty in simplicity and functionality. However, the concept of minimalism pre-dated the use of this phrase. The Bauhaus movement in Germany, with figures such as Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier , also embraced similar ideas. This principle is based on the idea that removing superfluous elements enhances

610-720: A prototype for an unbuilt series of speculative houses to be constructed in Melrose Park, Illinois. The house has since been relocated and reconfigured as a part of the Elmhurst Art Museum. Mies designed two buildings for the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) as additions to the Caroline Wiess Law Building. In 1953, the MFAH commissioned Mies van der Rohe to create a master plan for the institution. He designed two additions to

671-520: A romantic relationship with sculptor and art collector Mary Callery for whom he designed an artist's studio in Huntington , Long Island, New York . He had a brief romantic relationship with Nelly van Doesburg . After having met in Europe many years prior, they met again in New York in 1947 during a dinner with Josep Lluís Sert where he promised her he would help organize an exhibition in Chicago featuring

SECTION 10

#1732854730149

732-831: A significant role as an educator, believing his architectural language could be learned, then applied to design any type of modern building. He set up a new education at the department of architecture of the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, replacing the traditional Ecole des Beaux-Art curriculum with a three-step-education beginning with crafts of drawing and construction leading to planning skills and finishing with theory of architecture. He worked personally and intensively on prototype solutions, and then allowed his students, both in school and his office, to develop derivative solutions for specific projects under his guidance. Mies placed great importance on education of architects who could carry on his design principles. He devoted

793-590: Is marked by an intentionally unadorned, clean-line black slab of polished granite. While Mies van der Rohe's work had enormous influence and critical recognition, his approach failed to sustain a creative force as a style after his death. By the 1980s, Mies' style was eclipsed by a new wave of modernism and post-modernism . This new style of architecture is evident in the buildings designed by Kevin Roche , one of Mies' students at IIT in Chicago. The Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Archive, an administratively independent section of

854-544: Is organized on a 28-foot grid pattern subdivided into six 4-foot, 8-inch modules. This pattern extends from the granite-paved plaza into the ground-floor lobbies of the two tower buildings with the grid lines continuing vertically up the buildings and integrating each component of the complex. Associated architects that have played a role in the complex's long history from 1959 to 1974 include Schmidt, Garden & Erickson; C.F. Murphy Associates; and A. Epstein & Sons. Between 1946 and 1951, Mies van der Rohe designed and built

915-488: Is positioned within the open space to suggest living, dining and sleeping spaces without using walls. No partitions touch the surrounding all-glass enclosure. Without solid exterior walls, full-height draperies on a perimeter track allow freedom to provide full or partial privacy when and where desired. The house has been described as sublime, a temple hovering between heaven and earth, a poem, a work of art. The Edith Farnsworth House and its 60-acre (240,000 m ) wooded site

976-568: Is said to be an early example of the innovative "fast-track" construction process, where design documentation and construction are done concurrently. During 1951–1952, Mies designed the steel, glass, and brick McCormick House, located in Elmhurst, Illinois (18 miles west of the Chicago Loop), for real-estate developer Robert Hall McCormick, Jr. A one-story adaptation of the exterior curtain wall of his famous 860–880 Lake Shore Drive towers, it served as

1037-567: The Brno chair , and the Tugendhat chair . These pieces are manufactured under licence by the Knoll furniture company. His furniture is known for fine craftsmanship , a mixture of traditional luxurious fabrics like leather combined with modern chrome frames, and a distinct separation of the supporting structure and the supported surfaces, often employing cantilevers to enhance the feeling of lightness created by delicate structural frames. In 1953

1098-542: The Edith Farnsworth House , a weekend retreat outside Chicago for an independent professional woman, Dr. Edith Farnsworth. Here, Mies explored the relationship between people, shelter, and nature. The glass pavilion is raised six feet above a floodplain next to the Fox River, surrounded by forest and rural prairies. The house took a while to be built due to the underlying issues between Mies and Edith Farnsworth. There

1159-603: The House Beautiful editor Elizabeth Gordon published an editorial under the title "The Threat to the Next America". In it, she criticized Mies's Villa Tugendhat as cold, barren design and dismissed Mies as European Architect. Mies served as the last director of Bauhaus, and then headed the department of architecture, Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, where he developed the Second Chicago School. He played

1220-454: The Museum of Modern Art 's department of architecture and design, was established in 1968 by the museum's trustees. It was founded in response to the architect's desire to bequeath his entire work to the museum. The archive consists of about nineteen thousand drawings and prints, one thousand of which are by the designer and architect Lilly Reich (1885–1947), Mies van der Rohe's close collaborator from 1927 to 1937; of written documents (primarily,

1281-781: The Nazis forced the state-sponsored school to leave its campus in Dessau, and Mies moved it to an abandoned telephone factory in Berlin. In April 1933, the school was raided by the Gestapo , and in July of that year, because the Nazis had made the continued operation of the school untenable, Mies and the faculty "voted" to close the Bauhaus. Some of Mies's designs found favour with Adolf Hitler , such as his designs for autobahn service stations. Mies and Gropius both joined

SECTION 20

#1732854730149

1342-612: The Presidential Medal of Freedom . In 1966 Robert Venturi coined the postmodern motto "less is a bore" as countervision to Mies's motto "less is more". Technological advances in the manufacturing of architectural glass generated renewed interest in Mies's 1922 designs for a high-rise block on Friedrichstrasse in Berlin. Mies's Farnsworth House in Plano Illinois became a recurrent theme in 20th century architecture because it resembled

1403-495: The Seagram Building , which was completed in 1958. Mies settled in Chicago, Illinois, where he was appointed head of the architecture school at Chicago's Armour Institute of Technology (later renamed Illinois Institute of Technology). One of the benefits of taking this position was that he would be commissioned to design the new buildings and master plan for the campus. All his buildings still stand there, including Alumni Hall,

1464-504: The Werkbund , organizing the influential Weissenhof Estate prototype modernist housing exhibition. He was also one of the founders of the architectural association Der Ring . He joined the avant-garde Bauhaus design school as their director of architecture, adopting and developing their functionalist application of simple geometric forms in the design of useful objects. He served as its last director. Like many other avant-garde architects of

1525-576: The 'Faultless Painter'") uses the phrase "less is more" in the mouth of the Renaissance painter. Pope Francis adopts the conviction that "less is more" in his 2015 encyclical letter , Laudato si' , noting that it is "found in different religious traditions [including] the Bible ". In architecture, the expression is often erroneously attributed to the German-American architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe ,

1586-528: The Barcelona chair as "the Platonic ideal of the chair", and wrote that, despite its high price, owning one had become a necessity for young architects: "When you saw the holy object on the sisal rug , you knew you were in a household where a fledgling architect and his young wife had sacrificed everything to bring the symbol of the godly mission into their home." On the cover of the fifth volume of Spy × Family ,

1647-473: The Barcelona chair in both chrome and stainless steel. The chairs are almost completely hand-crafted, and each carries a facsimile of van der Rohe's signature, stamped into its frame. Unlicensed replicas of the original design are made by other manufacturers worldwide and are sold under different marketing names. Such designs are frequently subject to legal challenges. In his 1981 book about modern architecture , From Bauhaus to Our House , Tom Wolfe called

1708-514: The Dirksen U.S. Courthouse. The structural framing of the buildings is formed of high-tensile bolted steel and concrete. The exterior curtain walls are defined by projecting steel I-beam mullions covered with flat black graphite paint, characteristic of Mies's designs. The balance of the curtain walls are of bronze-tinted glass panes, framed in shiny aluminum, and separated by steel spandrels, also covered with flat black graphite paint. The entire complex

1769-524: The Dutch "van der", because the German form " von " was a nobiliary particle legally restricted to those of German nobility lineage. He began his independent professional career designing upper-class homes. In 1913 Mies married Adele Auguste (Ada) Bruhn (1885–1951), the daughter of a wealthy industrialist. The couple separated in 1918, after having three daughters: Dorothea (1914–2008), an actress and dancer who

1830-639: The IIT campus, and for developer Herbert Greenwald , presented to Americans a style that seemed a natural progression of the almost forgotten nineteenth century Chicago School style. His architecture, with origins in the German Bauhaus and western European International Style , became an accepted mode of building for American cultural and educational institutions, developers, public agencies, and large corporations. Chicago Federal Center Plaza, also known as Chicago Federal Plaza, unified three buildings of varying scales:

1891-548: The Nazis, and in 1937 or 1938 he reluctantly followed Gropius to the United States. He accepted a residential commission in Wyoming and then an offer to head the department of architecture of the newly established Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago. Mies was allowed to combine ideological conviction with commerce . Already in 1919 he had drawn up plans for an office glass tower. In New York he found investors for

Barcelona chair - Misplaced Pages Continue

1952-459: The United States. He accepted the position to head the architecture school at what is today the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). Mies sought to establish his own particular architectural style that could represent modern times . His buildings made use of modern materials such as industrial steel and plate glass to define interior spaces. He is often associated with his fondness for

2013-455: The aphorisms " less is more " and " God is in the details ". Mies was born March 27, 1886, in Aachen , Germany. He worked in his father's stone carving shop and at several local design firms before he moved to Berlin , where he joined the office of interior designer Bruno Paul . He began his architectural career as an apprentice at the studio of Peter Behrens from 1908 to 1912, where he

2074-554: The building—Cullinan Hall, completed in 1958, and the Brown Pavilion, completed in 1974. A renowned example of the International Style, these portions of the Caroline Wiess Law Building comprise one of only two Mies-designed museums in the world. The One Charles Center , built in 1962, is a 23-story aluminum and glass building that heralded the beginning of Baltimore's downtown modern buildings. The Highfield House , just to

2135-613: The business correspondence) covering nearly the entire career of the architect; of photographs of buildings, models, and furniture; and of audiotapes, books, and periodicals. Less is more "Less is more" can refer to architecture, art, design, writing, or philosophy. The concept dates back at least to the ancient Greeks: Chilon of Sparta made use of the famous Ancient Greek proverb: "Το λακωνίζειν εστί φιλοσοφείν", which may be roughly translated as "philosophers keep it brief" (lit. make it laconic). Robert Browning 's 1855 dramatic monologue, Andrea del Sarto (poem) (subtitled "Called

2196-574: The chapel, and his masterpiece the S.R. Crown Hall , built as the home of IIT's School of Architecture. In 1944, he became an American citizen, completing his severance from his native Germany. His thirty years as an American architect reflect a more structural, pure approach toward achieving his goal of a new architecture for the twentieth century. He focused his efforts on enclosing open and adaptable "universal" spaces with clearly arranged structural frameworks, featuring prefabricated steel shapes filled in with large sheets of glass. His early projects at

2257-524: The character Yuri Briar is shown sitting on a Barcelona chair. In the 2001 Star Trek: Voyager finale, " Endgame ", it was featured in Admiral Kathryn Janeway 's apartment. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Ludwig Mies van der Rohe ( / m iː s  ...   r oʊ / MEESS -...- ROH ; German: [ˈluːtvɪç ˈmiːs fan deːɐ̯ ˈʁoːə] ; born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies ; March 27, 1886 – August 17, 1969)

2318-516: The clarity of the concept. It emphasizes functionality, clean aesthetics and simplicity. In industrial and graphic design , Less is more manifests itself in minimalist forms, the use of only few colors and the elimination of superfluous details. Minimalism in graphic design uses negative space, limited color palettes and simple typography to create visual impact. In industrial design , it translates into products that are both aesthetically pleasing and highly functional, often with fewer components and

2379-423: The day, Mies based his architectural mission and principles on his understanding and interpretation of ideas developed by theorists and critics who pondered the declining relevance of the traditional design styles. He selectively adopted theoretical ideas such as the aesthetic credos of Russian Constructivism with their ideology of "efficient" sculptural assembly of modern industrial materials. Mies found appeal in

2440-585: The faceted all-glass Friedrichstraße skyscraper, followed by a taller curved version in 1922 named the Glass Skyscraper. He constructed his first modernist house with the Villa Wolf in 1926 in Guben (today Gubin , Poland) for Erich and Elisabeth Wolf. This was shortly followed by Haus Lange and Haus Esters in 1928. He continued with a series of pioneering projects, culminating in his two European masterworks:

2501-406: The four great founders of contemporary architecture: Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright. It included addresses by Le Corbusier and Gropius as well as an interview with Mies van der Rohe. Discussion focused upon philosophies of design, aspects of their various architectural projects, and the juncture of architecture and city planning. In 1963, he was awarded

Barcelona chair - Misplaced Pages Continue

2562-490: The frame to be formed with a seamless piece of metal, giving it a smoother appearance. Bovine leather replaced the ivory-colored pigskin which was used for the original pieces. Although many architects and furniture designers of the Bauhaus era were intent on providing well-designed homes and impeccably manufactured furnishings for common people, the Barcelona chair was an exception. It was designed for Spanish royalty to oversee

2623-533: The historical styles gained substantial cultural credibility after World War I, a disaster widely seen as a failure of the old world order of imperial leadership of Europe. The aristocratic classical revival styles were particularly reviled by many as the architectural symbol of a now-discredited and outmoded social system. Progressive thinkers called for a completely new architectural design process guided by rational problem-solving and an exterior expression of modern materials and structure rather than what they considered

2684-479: The mid-rise Everett McKinley Dirksen United States Courthouse , the high-rise John C. Kluczynski Building , and the single-story Post Office building. The complex's plot area extends over two blocks; a one-block site, bounded by Jackson, Clark, Adams, and Dearborn streets, contains the Kluczynski Federal Building and U.S. Post Office Loop Station, while a parcel on an adjacent block to the east contains

2745-407: The minimalist lifestyle. Although widely admired, the concept has also been criticized for its sometimes overly rigid approach and lack of warmth or personality in certain designs. Some criticism may also emerge from other minimalist concepts or the overuse of the term 'Less is More.' Today, the term is often interpreted more broadly to include ideas such as efficiency, clarity in communication and

2806-767: The northeast of the Johns Hopkins Homewood campus , was built in 1964 as a rental apartment building. The 15-story concrete tower became a residential condominium building in 1979. Both buildings are now on the National Register of Historic Places. Mies's last work was the Neue Nationalgalerie art museum, the New National Gallery for the Berlin National Gallery . Considered one of the most perfect statements of his architectural approach,

2867-515: The opening ceremonies of the exhibition and was described by Time magazine as inhabiting a "sumptuous German pavilion." The form is thought to be extrapolated from Roman folding chairs known as the Curule chair – upholstered stools used by the Roman aristocracy. According to Knoll Inc., despite its industrial appearance the Barcelona chair requires much hand crafting. Since 1953 Knoll Inc has manufactured

2928-416: The presence and prestige of the building. Mies's design included a bronze curtain wall with external H-shaped mullions that were exaggerated in depth beyond what was structurally necessary. Detractors criticized it as having committed Adolf Loos's " crime of ornamentation ". Philip Johnson had a role in interior materials selections, and he designed the sumptuous Four Seasons Restaurant . The Seagram Building

2989-439: The superficial application of classical facades. While continuing his traditional neoclassical design practice, Mies began to develop visionary projects that, though mostly unbuilt, rocketed him to fame as an architect capable of giving form that was in harmony with the spirit of the emerging modern society. Boldly abandoning ornament altogether, Mies made a dramatic modernist debut in 1921 with his stunning competition proposal for

3050-477: The temporary German Pavilion for the Barcelona exposition (often called the Barcelona Pavilion) in 1929 (a 1986 reconstruction is now built on the original site) and the elegant Villa Tugendhat in Brno , Czechoslovakia , completed in 1930. He joined the German avant-garde, working with the progressive design magazine G , which started in July 1923. He developed prominence as architectural director of

3111-411: The typical residential brick apartment buildings. Mies designed a series of four middle-income high-rise apartment buildings for developer Herbert Greenwald. The towers were simple rectangular boxes with a non-hierarchical wall enclosure, raised on stilts above a glass-enclosed lobby. The lobby is set back from the perimeter columns, which were exposed around the perimeter of the building above, creating

SECTION 50

#1732854730149

3172-564: The upper pavilion is a precise composition of monumental steel columns and a cantilevered (overhanging) roof plane with a glass enclosure. The simple square glass pavilion is a powerful expression of his ideas about flexible interior space, defined by transparent walls and supported by an external structural frame. In 1952, a fraternity commissioned Mies to design a building on the Indiana University campus in Bloomington, Indiana . The plan

3233-643: The use of simple rectilinear and planar forms, clean lines, pure use of color, and the extension of space around and beyond interior walls expounded by the Dutch De Stijl group. In particular, the layering of functional sub-spaces within an overall space and the distinct articulation of parts as expressed by Gerrit Rietveld appealed to Mies. As households in the middle class and upper class could increasingly afford household appliances , modern architects like Mies, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Adolf Loos rejected decorative architecture and became drivers of

3294-583: The visual arts section of the Reich Culture Chamber and entered early Nazi architectural competitions, with designs showing structures decorated with swastikas. Mies's design for a Reich Bank building in Berlin was one of six to receive a prize, although it was rejected by Hitler. Mies and Gropius wanted to be accepted by the Nazis, and both signed an artists' manifesto supporting Hitler's succession to Hindenburg. Mies's Modernist designs of glass and steel were not considered suitable for state buildings by

3355-438: The work of her late husband Theo van Doesburg . This exhibition took place from October 15 until November 8, 1947, with their romance officially ending not much later. Nevertheless they remained on good terms, spending Easter together in 1948 at a modern farmhouse renovated by Mies on Long Island, as well as meeting several more times that year. After World War I , while still designing traditional neoclassical homes, Mies began

3416-407: Was a German-American architect , academic, and interior designer . He was commonly referred to as Mies , his surname. He is regarded as one of the pioneers of modern architecture . In the 1930s, Mies was the last director of the Bauhaus , a ground-breaking school of modernist art, design and architecture. After Nazism 's rise to power, with its strong opposition to modernism, Mies emigrated to

3477-500: Was a complex relationship between the two for a variety of reasons, some related to personal feelings and others to design considerations. Back and forth legal disputes led to these ongoging issues despite the beautiful outcome of the design. The highly crafted pristine white structural frame and all-glass walls define a simple rectilinear interior space, allowing nature and light to envelop the interior space. A wood-paneled fireplace (also housing mechanical equipment, kitchen, and toilets)

3538-678: Was exposed to the current design theories and to progressive German culture . He worked alongside Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius , who was later also involved in the development of the Bauhaus . Mies served as construction manager of the Embassy of the German Empire in Saint Petersburg under Behrens. Ludwig Mies renamed himself as part of his transformation from a tradesman's son to an architect working with Berlin's cultural elite, adding "van der" and his mother's maiden name "Rohe" and using

3599-547: Was known as Georgia , Marianne (1915–2003), and Waltraut (1917–1959), who was a research scholar and curator at the Art Institute of Chicago . During his military service in 1917, Mies fathered a son out of wedlock . In 1925, Mies began a relationship with designer Lilly Reich that ended when he moved to the United States ; from 1940 until his death, artist Lora Marx (1900–1989) was his primary companion. Mies carried on

3660-456: Was not realized during his lifetime, but the design was rediscovered in 2013, and in 2019 the university's Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design announced they would be constructing it with blessing of his grandchildren. As of June 2022, the building is completed and open. Mies designed Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, DC. The building was completed in 1972 at

3721-738: Was purchased at auction for US$ 7.5 million by preservation groups in 2004 and is now owned and operated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as a public museum . The building influenced the creation of hundreds of modernist glass houses, most notably the Glass House by Philip Johnson, located near New York City and also now owned by the National Trust. The 860–880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments were built between 1948 and 1951 and came to define postwar US Modernism. These towers, with façades of steel and glass, were radical departures from

SECTION 60

#1732854730149
#148851