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Thursday, September 13, 2007

Forever Mies

posted by on September 13 at 11:29 AM

Some lovely passages from an old feature story (2002) about this stone of a human being:
MiesCrownHall.jpg
1

Mies believed… in something more noble than politics, the ruthless pursuit of the perfect modern building, the true heir, he thought, to Greek temples and gothic cathedrals - buildings constructed on earth in order to escape it. These were cathedrals for the new religion, commerce and industry - factories, office blocks, skyscrapers and apartment towers, the modern urban landscape, whose architecture had yet to be invented. The form lay out there for him to discover. “The will of the epoch,” he said, must be “translated into space” - as if he were just the draughtsman for a higher system, the universe’s appointed architect.

2

Like any eager convert, Mies took modernism to extremes. Throughout his life, nothing got in the way of his quest for pure form: politics, family, mistresses, clients, ideas that ill fitted his single-minded worldview - all were brushed aside. Even practicality. In the 1930s, he designed furniture that users “must learn to love”

3

Mies had schooled himself as modernism’s cold, steely heart. He wasn’t verbose and dilettantish like Le Corbusier. He didn’t douse himself with sociology like Walter Gropius. He didn’t dress the flamboyant dandy like Frank Lloyd Wright, all cape and cane. All were diversions, Mies thought. Instead, he presented himself as a monolithic figure, silent and sober, like a monk. He read St Thomas Aquinas, St Augustine, Plato and Nietzsche.

RSS icon Comments

1

OMG!! I made it through an entire Mudede post. I've been reading for months, and this is the first one I've managed to get through. I'm not sure how that makes me feel...

Posted by Jaime-Leigh | September 13, 2007 11:46 AM
2

@1: Like you're in touch with the radical and the mundane, the haptic and the cryptic? Drinking psilocybin tea Donald Duck, Donald Trump, and Donald Barthelmes? Speaking obtusely as an excuse to look at tits?

Posted by Ziggity | September 13, 2007 11:54 AM
3

Having lived in Chicago for seven years and graduated with a design degree related to architecture, Mies Van der Roe is like a ghost that haunts me. His furniture is everywhere. It confronts me in museums, airports, restaurants...all of them ostensibly "modern". What does that say about the design field that some of the most "modern" spaces are populated with furniture designed in the teens and twenties. Is that commentary on his genius or on our lack of talent and vision?

Posted by Benjamin | September 13, 2007 12:05 PM
4

Benjamin - you should check out some of these so called "modern" art galleries!

Posted by The Baron | September 13, 2007 12:40 PM
5

Thanks for that Charles.

Posted by Jimmy | September 13, 2007 1:02 PM
6

is it just me or does this guy sound just like Howard Roark

Posted by vooodooo84 | September 13, 2007 1:06 PM
7

@4 The Baron, art galleries do not typically have lots of furniture.

I am talking about mostly public spaces and home furniture catalogs, like "Design Out of Reach" which tout practically ancient designs as modern.

Posted by Benjamin | September 13, 2007 1:20 PM
8

The Bauhaus school doesn't dance, it marches. And that is why it sucks.

Posted by NaFun | September 13, 2007 1:56 PM
9

Viva the Norton Building!!!!

Posted by Dod | September 13, 2007 2:08 PM
10

mies van der rohe once tried to kill me in a dream.

Posted by josh | September 13, 2007 3:24 PM
11

Mies van der Rohe said "less is more" and used very high-quality materials. "Less is more," Charles.

Posted by Amelia | September 13, 2007 4:02 PM
12

mies used steel beams decoratively - not all of them were essential to the structure.

fucking hypocrite.

Posted by maxsolomon | September 13, 2007 4:04 PM
13

I Mies designed brick-clad buildings too. And Philip Johnson once imitated Mies's style, when he designed the Glass House.

And what's not to like about Barcelona chairs? Probably the most comfortable public furniture ever.

Posted by iit alum | September 13, 2007 8:13 PM
14

Eek: I forgot html bullshit

I [heart] Crown Hall

Posted by iit alum | September 13, 2007 8:15 PM
15

Crown Hall is quite lovely. I saw it for the first time this spring.
#14 Have you seen Koolhaas's piece at IIT?? I like it...

Posted by Dod | September 13, 2007 10:55 PM

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