ID 2202 International Style: Mies; De Stijl

International Exposition

- Barcelona, May 1929-January 1930

- 25 million attended

- 20 European nations participated in the fair

- private organizations from the US and Japan participated

- Mies van der Rohe: International Style

German Pavilion (Mies)

- Barcelona 1929

- Pavilion of German Republic

- post WW1

- no "trade exhibits"

- Mies: wanted the building to become "an

ideal zone of tranquility"

- collaborated with Lilly Reich (helped with furniture design of interior)

- assembled: 1929, dissembled: 1930, reassembled: 1986

- designed like a private house

- International Style:

- assembled on foundation that adjust to

site (foundation blocks, assembled

anywhere)

- concrete (horizontal) slabs, cantilevers

- non-weight bearing walls, long expenses

of glass curtain walls (open floor plan)

German Pavilion (Mies) continued

- "Mies's Opaque Cube" -- International Style: simplified (no applied ornament)

- stationary walls (removable partitions)

- "floating plan": interior to exterior -- cantilever roofs, removable glass partition walls

- continuity of materials: interior/exterior (granite in both: stationary wall)

- "less is more":

- do away with extraneous: "simplify to

essentials"

- rely on materials for the "decorative"

- "god is in the details":

- Golden Means Proportions (1 : 1.6)

Barcelona Chair (Mies and Reich)

- 1929

- designed for German Pavilion

- modern day equivalent to a throne (King Alonzo XIII was visiting)

- original in white pigskin (lost)

- structure, floating on top: slabs of cushions

- "floating plan"

- "god is in the details": Golden Mean Proportions, detailed choices

- Mies: "a chair is a very difficult object. A skyscraper is almost easier"

Farnsworth House (Mies)

- Fox River, Illinois, 1951

- concrete slabs stacked, foundation blocks, right on top of the topography

- structure is made by slabs and columns: created non-weight bearing glass walls

- "assembly house" -- like a modular kit

- International Style:

- can be assembled anywhere

- pilotis adjust the building to any site

- "floating plan": interior to exterior (glass walls with transparency, no hand rails for stairs: stairs are floating)

- "skin and bones architecture": bones are the concrete slabs and steel post (structural elements of the house), skin is the glass added to it (non-weight bearing glass curtain walls)

- interior: attached to exterior (glass curtain walls)

MR Chair (Mies)

- 1927

- MR: Mies van der Rohe

- cantilever chair: structure one piece

- tubular steel all the way around -- stretch across leather (floating on structure)

Brno Chair (Mies)

- 1930

- cantilever chair

- designed for private residence

Day bed (Mies)

- 1940

- open sofa without back (like a bed but for sitting)

- "floating plan"

"Glass Skyscraper" (Mies)

- 1921

- glass partition walls

- steel superstructure

- "skin and bones architecture"

- transparency: "floating"

Lakeshore Drive Apartments (Mies)

- Chicago 1951

- establishing International Style skyscraper

- simplified to "skin and bones architecture"

- steel superstructure

- glass partition walls

- recessed ground floor -- "floating quality" -- matching interior/exterior materials

- Golden Mean Proportions

Crown Hall (Mies)

- I.I.T., Chicago 1956

- cantilever steps (transparency) -- added hand rails later for safety

- "skin and bones architecture"

- "floating plan"

- "less is more"

Seagram Building (Mies and Johnson)

- collaborated with Philip Johnson

- NYC 1958

- simplified into "skin and bones architecture"

- steel superstructure

- glass transparency

- built around elevators

- "floating": relieves massiveness at first floor by recessing entrance

- empty space: vantage point (void and strong solid)

- matching materials: exterior/interior

"Glass House" (Johnson)

- New Canaan, CT 1949

- right on top of ground

- steel superstructure with glass walls

- Mies's furniture in interior

- as much glass as possible

- strict geometry: details important

- "skin and bones architecture"

German National Gallery (Mies)

- Berlin 1968

- floating plan: match materials with interior and exterior

- consistency of International Style

- removable partitions (hang down, float) -- adjustable (open floor plan)

Mies's International Style

- "assembly house"

- "skin and bones architecture"

- "less is more"

- "god is in the details"

De Stijl

- "Pure Style" (Dutch)

- Gerrit Rietveld

- simplification

- "space boxes"

- verticals + horizontals

- intersections

- Schroder House

- Red/Blue Chair

Schroder House (Rietveld)

- De Stijl: "pure style"

- Utrecht 1924

- "simplification": verticals, horizontals to flat planes that intersect primary colors, black, white, and gray

- side: only verticals and horizontals, no curves or diagonals, strong primary colors

- intersections of verticals and horizontals using cantilevers to make flat roofs

- angles/angular: intersections of verticals and horizontals form volumes (solids and voids)

- many intersections on the exterior

- "Mrs. S. asked for a house...preferable designed without walls" -- vertical/horizontal planes -- intersection -- 3D

- "we don't do buildings, we do space" -- "space boxes" -- through intersections

Red/Blue Chair (Rietveld)

- space boxes

- a form that encloses space

- space surrounded by a form

- intersections (verticals and horizontals forming structure with consistent language) -- space box

- armrest cantilevers

- lot of consistency simplified down to a few elements

- Schoenmaekers: "Yellow symbolizes the vertical movement of the sun's rays; blue, the horizontal line of power around the sun"