MIES
excerpt from edited by designed by
conversations with mies van der rohe moises puente mary lim
AN INTERVIEW WITH MIES VAN DER ROHE Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) German-American Architect Born in Aachen, Germany Awards: Presidential Medal of Freedom, Royal Gold Medal, AIA Gold Medal, Twenty-five Year Award
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glass, concrete, steel: three materials which embody ludwig mies van der rohe’s work within architecture. still, mies emphasized not the material itself but how it was used. coining the phrase, “less is more,” mies eliminates ornamentation and excess decoration and replaces it with uncluttered clarity, high abstraction, harmony, and his skin-and-bones framework.
left. figure 1. Lake Shore Drive Apartments (1949-1951)
"WHY SHOULDN'T EACH ARCHITECT DESIGN ACCORDING TO HIS OWN STANDARD?"
Q: but wouldn’t it be better to Q: has the mixed development concept of your lafayette park have a standard system of project give you a new design components conforming to a approach to architecture? standard dimension? A: No. I do not think we need to A: We built the lower buildings for people who like to live on the give up our present freedom. ground. But others like to live Why should not each architect up in the air. So here we built design his own standard? for both. People used to say Otherwise you would have to that high buildings were more tell everybody which standard costly than low buildings but they should use and that, I think, would be an impossible an interesting fact has come out of this Detroit scheme. The task. Some people, for instance, apartments in the tall buildings use 7-foot-high doors and have In our last building in Chicago a plaster space over the top of are much cheaper than the on 860-880 Lake Shore Drive apartments on the ground. It is the door. What I like to do is to (fig.1) we had more than 3,000 make a door between floor and really much cheaper. So I would individual windows but only two not be surprised if, in such town ceiling. So is my standard to be different window types. In 900 accepted or the other? I should development schemes, we kill Esplanade we have, I would mention here that we never use off the low house in the end. say, 10,000 windows all of the a ceiling that is lower than 8 feet. same type. That is enough Ours are mostly 8.3 feet. pre-fabrication. But, let me not be misunderstood. I think that an industrial process is not like a rubber stamp. Everything has to be put together and, as such, should have its own expression.
Q: what do you think about the technique of prefabrication? A: I do not think it is an advantage to build planned packaged houses. If you prefabricate a house completely, it becomes an unnecessary restriction. The value of prefabrication is in the units. Thus the architect can use them in a free way. Otherwise, architecture would be terribly boring to look at.
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mies van der rohe's drawing for the lake shore drive apartments
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"WE HAD DESIGNED
IT, AND WE FULLY BELIEVED IN IT… WE FOUGHT FOR IT."
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Q: do you think people should live Q: do you design architecture in particular types of buildings? under the consideration of A: I think people should live as saving space for cities? A: No. Not always. But first and they like to live. Most people have never lived in tall these foremost, one can use up all the tall structures. But others, and slums for new development. In I know many, have lived in all the cities of the world there them for years, and they are are large areas of these. Also, still fascinated with living there. you can avoid the suburban But if you build high, you must sprawl. Chicago has thousands have enough space to live of these houses all over the upon - as we have in Detroit place. As opposed to wasting (fig.2). There will be a huge land and space, they should 52-acre park in the center of have been developed tall and the buildings with trees and low buildings in a more logical grass and no streets. Here we way. And I don’t say this is only have kept the streets out. All work for architects. I think that access is from perimeter roads developers could do it as well. which are dead-ends. After all, most of these houses are made by developers and are made by builders. Very few of Q: were other people involved in the design process? these are by architects. A: No. We had designed it our way from the start and once we were satisfied the idea was a good one we made no concessions. We had designed it, and we fully believed in it. We fought for it and we even said that they must have it our way, otherwise we wouldn’t have come to Detroit.
left. figure 2. Lafayette Park District (1961-1965) bottom right. figure 3. Glass Skyscraper (1922)
Q: do the developers for these projects understand your work? A: For the Detroit project, I think we will have a great influence on new development. However, generally, I think my work has so much influence due to its reasonableness. Everybody could do that. To do it well you don’t have to have include too much fantasy and imagination. You just need to use your brain. And, after all, that is something that everyone can do. Objective development is a question of education. Things become better and better by example. If there is none, then people just talk. They talk about things they don’t really know anything about, so they cannot tell the difference between good or bad.
Q: have you always felt this way? A: No. I think it was a slow, gradual development. At the beginning everything was unclear and then the pattern and the answers emerged. The more I searched for a deeper understanding of the problems, the clearer my work became. This development was from within myself. There were no influences from outside. Q: what do you normally do when you have a fine idea that cannot be built due to material issues? A: I can give you an example. I tried these glass skyscrapers first in 1922 (fig.3). That is, they worked fine on paper. Later, when we started the skyscraper in Chicago, we had to construct in concrete because it was just after World War II and we could not get a hold of steel. Although I tried to find a solution using concrete, at the same time, I designed it as if it were steel. I don’t know if you have ever seen this scheme but after that we never thought about concrete any more. From then on, we built utilizing steel.
" WHEN AN IDEA
Q: do you often design buildings Q: would you comment on the architect/client relationship? without a client because you think a site inherently needs a A: Never talk to a client about architecture. Talk to him about particular building? A: This is a hard question because his children. It is simply good politics. He will not understand most of our designs are drawn what you will have to say about out before there is a practical architecture most of the time. possibility of carrying them out. An architect of ability should I do that on purpose and have be able to tell a client what he done it my entire life. I design wants. Most of the time a client ahead when I am interested in an idea. I do this with the hope never knows exactly what he wants. He may, of course, have that one day, the building will be some very curious ideas, and I lived in and enjoyed. do not mean to say that they are silly ideas. But being untrained Q: do you visualize a scheme when you see an empty site? in architecture they just cannot know what is possible and what Not for every site. But for some, A: yes. Take Chicago, for example. is not possible. I may have had I perhaps think in my mind that many wrangles with clients while a building was being designed, there should be a large hall for but always, in the end, they have conventions. Then we start to design and try the idea. This is been satisfied with the way the often with no motive other than building was executed. to experiment, not construct.
on left. Seagram Building (1958) 8
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A IS GOOD, THEN IT SHOULD ONLY COME FROM ONE MAN."
Q: do you ever present multiple Q: so you prefer to work alone? Q: A: I prefer not to work with other ideas to your client? A: No. Only one. Always. And the people. I work with larger firms of architects in different ways best one that he can give. That A: but I don’t discuss my ideas is where you can fight for what with them. I would never do that. you believe in. He doesn’t have to choose. How can he choose? It is the same with the structural engineer. We tell him what we He hasn’t the capacity to choose. No, it is much better to have just want and he tells us if it is even possible. In the field of design one idea, and if the idea is clear, then you can fight for it. That is the structural engineers, with a few exceptions like Pier Luigi how you can get things done. Nervi, do not know what they are doing. I am with the single man. Q: what is your opinion of working with other architects? When an idea is good - and it is a clear idea - then it should only A: The teamwork in our field is come from one man. If the idea between architect, mechanical and structural engineer. It is no is demonstrated in an objective use working with other architects. way, everybody should be able to understand it clearly. Who does what? I think it would be better to have just have a couple different designs and to choose. After all, why should I discuss my ideas with someone else like another architect?
in terms of daily life, how would you describe the relationship between advancements in technology and architecture? Facts are given to us. We have had them for hundreds of years. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when the first modern scientists were experimenting, they had no idea what would come out of their ideas. They had no influence on man or man's daily life. Now, we have science, we have technology, and we have industrialization. All three are accepted as a part of progressive existence. The question is what to do with them. That is the human side of this problem. We have to know that life cannot be changed by us. It will be changed. But not by us. We can only guide the things that can cause physical change. It is for all men, not just a few, to use all these things for the best for all of us. That, I think, is what we should do with our lives. Interviewed in London, 1959
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