Architect: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Philip Johnson on Mies
25 June 2020
Philip Johnson on Mies25 June 2020
The Berlin Building Exposition of 1931 was the largest of its kind ever to be held. With Teutonic thoroughness every material, every method, every theory that had to do with building was shown in the Exposition. The result of this thoroughness, plus an extraordinary lack of funds for proper presentation,… Read More
Mies: The Horizon
14 June 2020
Mies: The Horizon14 June 2020
Perusing the slides I had taken of the reconstructed pavilion, I found it difficult to decide which way up they went — an artefact of photography, no doubt. Then I changed my mind. It was not an artefact of photography, but a property of the pavilion itself, a property of… Read More
AH: Carmody Groarke on Haus-Rücker-Co
22 February 2019
AH: Carmody Groarke on Haus-Rücker-Co22 February 2019
Ashtray Our interest in Haus-Rücker-Co’s drawing lies less in the technological implications that created the artificial environment and focusses instead on the spatial tension created between Mies van der Rohe’s Haus Lange and the heart-shaped bubble that surrounds it. The drawing removes reference to the context, within and outside the… Read More
Parataxis
28 December 2017
Parataxis28 December 2017
‘Whatever elements that may come to hand or that are selected from the profusion of materials within reach, are combined with words to create a simple poetic image. This should amuse, disturb, mystify or provoke reflection. These images above all should entertain – the only sure road to appreciation.’ Man… Read More
The Double or Panoramic Structure of the Perspective
24 October 2016
The Double or Panoramic Structure of the Perspective24 October 2016
What is compelling about the sketches of Mies van der Rohe is their reliance on a pictorial composition that actively distorts perspectival conventions. This type of distortion is evident consistently across his more finished presentations drawings as well as his sketches. In using perspective as his main visualising tool Mies… Read More
Mies van der Rohe: Neue Stadt
22 July 2016
Mies van der Rohe: Neue Stadt22 July 2016
In the photographs most often reproduced of the Glass Skyscraper by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the tower stands in the middle of a clay model of an old city. The model acts as a presentation of an imagined reality, of what it might be when built. The beacon of… Read More
Architectural anxiety
28 September 2011
Architectural anxiety28 September 2011
– Niall Hobhouse and Nicholas Olsberg
This instalment explores the rich pathologies of architectural anxiety: the nagging pressure of what architects know and admire, or have seen and rejected. Or of what it is in the work of other architects, and in their own past practice, which they are driven always to acknowledge in the buildings… Read More
Simplification
6 May 2011
Simplification6 May 2011
– Niall Hobhouse and Nicholas Olsberg
The first of these short excursions into work on paper looked at how drawings were used to place built forms in their settings. Grounded in traditions of illustration, they were spacious, suggestive and pictorial. Architects draw to many purposes. In Part II, on Simplification, we turn from the arts of… Read More
Sky Architecture
2 March 2020
Sky Architecture2 March 2020
On this day in 1933, a certain gorilla scaled the Empire State Building. King Kong might have had an easier time if he had taken the lift. This design for the elevator shaft, by Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, is held in the Drawing Matter collection. Here are are more examples… Read More
commerce concept & diagram construction drawing presentation theoretical & imaginary