New National Gallery - Miesvan der Rohe

New National Gallery Final and Finest

ARCH1121 Architectural History & Theory 1 2007 Raymond Fung Assignment 2 3214396 Yat Hang TSUI

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Table of Contents Introduction

p.4

The Refined Work

p.8

Criticisms

p.12

The New Way on Art

p.14

A German Monument

p.18

East Meets West

p.20

Conclusion

p.24

“Great things are never easy, they are as difficult as they are rare.”

– Ludwig Mies van der Rohe [1]

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Introduction

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, one of the greatest architect in the 20th century, is regarded as the pioneer of modern architecture. Having completed in 1968, a year before Mies’ death, the New National Gallery is being described as the architect’s “final and finest” work with the influences and experiences of Mies’ previous work being made upon the design of

the gallery. While having a controversy side of functional problem that being criticized as a bad design for a gallery from its open space plan and a glass wall allowing large amount of light into the interior for displaying art. With the architect’s solution, the New National Gallery had therefore brought a new way on art as displayed in his monumental building art.

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1 - Portrait of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

2 - The front view of the gallery building, with simplicity and the minimal variety of material.

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The Refined Work Mies’ talent on simplification has been shown since his start of career [2]. Not apart from his New National Gallery - a granite paved concrete podium, steel structure with a square roof supported with eight cruciform columns and enclosed by glass [3]. This glazed hall with a square square roof form is a rework of Mies’ favourite unbuilt project for the Bacardi Headquarters in Cuba which developed in 1958 [4], its strength is

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5 the minimalist concept have been pushed into an extreme level with his first time (and also the last time) to actually build a singlevolume clear-span pavilion in a purest form [5].

3 - Appearence of one of the side, a simple outlook.

4 - The concept of the structure of the gallery is the result of Mies’ previous work.

5 - Preliminary model for Mies’ favourite form with a clear span structure.

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The construction is as well unique. The roof is the first rigid plate ever executed in construction history [6], it was being brought up with hoisting towers to the required level and then assemble with the eight columns. The interior is the most developed version of Mies’ late work in his concept of open plan, and the monumental version of the “glass house” in a magnificent scale after the previous Farnsworth House and the S.R. Crown Hall.

6 - From bottom to top, the diagram illustrating how the roof was being erected with hoisting towers.

7 - Photo on the special day - the roof being lifted.

8-9 - Mies’ previous Farnsworth House(8) and the S.R. Crown Hall(9) are the versions of Mies’ glass house in different scales.

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“It is very difficult, to do an exhibition there.” - Ludwig Mies van der Rohe [7]

Criticisms

It was problematic on the early days of the gallery. Critics have been doubt about the functionality for the gallery - continuous glass wall letting sunlight to stream into the interior for displaying art, huge in scale diminishing and dwarfing the paintings and sculpture and no walls for mounting art [8]. However, Mies knows fully about people’s concern on these issues, but he claims that there will be a great possibility on new ways of exhibiting art [9].

10 - The interior fully enclosed only by glass created a problem of displaying and viewing art.

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The New Way on Art In fact, through his own artistic achievement being recognised, Mies did cares about art and especially the future of art [10], he set the architecture in new ways having a function and set against old habits and forms [11]. The advantage of having an open plan for the gallery is giving the flexibility and fluidity for the events that are being held, and this is Mies’ main argument against the critics [12]. However, the main reason for the open plan is to fulfil Mies’ ideal on simplifying, reducing the bulk on the structure. Although the magnificent view from the interior to the exterior landscape has been discovered, that is the success of Mies’ distinctive idea about combining painting, sculpture, architecture and landscape [13].

11 - The plan of the ground floor of the gallery- a free space without anything splitting up the space.

12 - The idealised drawing of the simplicity of the gallery creating the open plan.

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A German Monument

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14 The form of the gallery succeeds the neo-classical movement of Germany having its monumental scale and spirit like the Parthenon and Berlin’s greatest monument – Altes museum by Karl Friedrich Schinkel. Mies admired the clarity of Greek architecture and the spatial fluidity of Gothic architecture [14]. Therefore, on the architect’s scientific

interpretation and unification on the temple-like form, the New National Gallery was born with clarity and discipline, harmony and simplicity.

The intention for creating a monument can be further seen on the elevated podium letting the transparent glass hall overlooks the surroundings. That is as well an arrangement of creating steps – implying an elevated position and exaltation [15].

13 - The artwork is displayed in a new way which Mies’ has concerned and expected, they usually being displayed on a suspended wall-panel.

14 - Berlin’s greatest monument - Altes museum.

15-16 - The New National Gallery retains the monumental spirit in it simplified scale having a similarity with ancient temple forms.

17 - The Gallery being elevated, with steps create a sense of exaltation.

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East Meets West 20

Other than design influences that have been discovered on Western monumental architecture, the New National Gallery maintained an unmistakable continuity on spirit with elements on Eastern philosophies and architectural devices. The beams are the strong example, the harmony that created in the Chinese alley environment with the Chinese order of beams can

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be interpreted into the New National Gallery’s own beam, the cruciform steel columns, with pin-joints attaching the roof plate is important not only for the advanced technology of construction but to express the floating effect [16].

18-21 - The detail that was being designed with the “I-beam” creates an “order” of itself which is common with the Eastern

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The Chinese concept of contradiction “yin” and “yang” as opposing forces which mean by they complement each other [17] can be seen beneath the gallery arrangement - the “visible” ground part with a spectacular transparent glass house contradicts with the “invisible” part created by the enclosed podium of the main construction; the outdoor sculpture space being enclosed on the sides but expose to the sky contradicts with the open sides but closed top. A sense of positive and negative space is then created.

22 - The plan drawing of the sculpture area, enclosed on the sides by walls.

23 - The sculpture area in reality - a contrast with the gallery building on the podium.

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Conclusion

In conclusion, this final and finest work by an architectural master is the last documentation of Bauhaus. The design process had proven that this Mies van der Rohe building has been pushed into an ultimate level, both technologically and conceptually, for the modernism period. Although the functionality remains controversial, it indeed created a new way of displaying art and making art in this gallery, which being treated as well a building art. And that inherited the Bauhaus creativity that deeply cared by Mies. The Germans remained no regret on such architectural master having such monumental work sat on his own soil and in fact, with its monumental value, it is a building for all time.

24 - Portrait of Mies outside the construction site of the gallery, witnessing the erect of his world’s largest clear span roof in his white Mecedes.

25 - The lobby area of the gallery. Unifortunately, part of the magnificent view from the glass wall is covered by the curtains which are sued for exclude sunlight in daytime.

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Image Reference Frontpage:

- Werner Oechslin, Phyllis Lambert ed., Mies in America (New York : H.N. Abrams, 2001), 500.

Declearation page:

- Peter Blundell Jones, Modern Architecture Through Case Studies (Boston, MA : Architectural Press, 2002), 213.

Contents page:

- Maritz Vandenberg, New National Gallery, Berlin (London : Phaidon Press Ltd, 1998), 28.

1. Ricardo Daza, Looking for Mies (Barcelona : Actar Publishers, 2000), 8.

2. Vandenberg, New National Gallery, Berlin, 13.

3. Ibid., 31.

4. Jones, Modern Architecture Through Case Studies, 213.

5. Vandenberg, New National Gallery, Berlin, 11.

6. Ibid., 15.

7. Oechslin, Mies in America, 492.

8. Vandenberg, New National Gallery, Berlin, 9.

9. Oechslin, Mies in America, 447.

10. Vandenberg, New National Gallery, Berlin, 39.

11. Ibid., 47.

12. Jones, Modern Architecture Through Case Studies, 206.

13. Ludwig Glaeser, Yukio Futagawa ed., Global Architecture: Mies van der Rohe - Crown Hall, IIT, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A..1952-56; New National Gallery, Berlin, West Germany. 1968. (Tokyo : A.D.A. EDITA, 1972), 18-19.

14. Jones, Modern Architecture Through Case Studies, 210.

15. Glaeser, Global Architecture: Mies van der Rohe - Crown Hall, IIT, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A..1952-56; New National Gallery, Berlin, West Germany. 1968., 44.

16. Jones, Modern Architecture Through Case Studies, 205.

17. Ibid., 208.

18. Johannes Malms, Werner Blaser ed., John Dennis Gartrell trans., West meets East : Mies van der Rohe (Boston : Birkh채user-Publishers for Architecture, 2001), 37.

19. Ibid., 36.

20. Ibid., 73.

21. Ibid.

20. Vandenberg, New National Gallery, Berlin, 46.

21. Ibid., 43 22. Ibid., 20.

23. Ibid., 22.

Reference Page Portrait:

-Oechslin, Mies in America, 390.

Endnotes 1. Peter Serenyi, “Spinoza, Hegel, and Mies: The Meaning of the New National Gallery in Berlin”, The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 3 (1971): 240.

2. Peter Blundell Jones, Modern Architecture Through Case Studies (Boston, MA : Architectural Press, 2002), 203.

3. Ludwig Glaeser, Yukio Futagawa ed., Global Architecture: Mies van der Rohe - Crown Hall, IIT, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A..1952-56; New National Gallery, Berlin, West Germany. 1968. (Tokyo : A.D.A. EDITA, 1972), 4-5.

4. Jones, Modern Architecture Through Case Studies, 206.

5. Ibid.

6. Glaeser, Global Architecture: Mies van der Rohe - Crown Hall, IIT, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A..1952-56; New National Gallery, Berlin, West Germany. 1968., 5.

7. Detlef Mertins, “Mies’s Event Space”, Grey Room Summer (2005): 61.

8. Ibid.

9. Ibid.

10. Ibid.

11. Ibid., 62 12. Jones, Modern Architecture Through Case Studies, 211.

13. Mertins, Grey Room, 62.

14. Serenyi, The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 240.

15. Johannes Malms, Werner Blaser ed., John Dennis Gartrell trans., West meets East : Mies van der Rohe (Boston : Birkhäuser-Publishers for Architecture, 2001), 19.

16. Jones, Modern Architecture Through Case Studies, 209.

17. Malms, West meets East: Mies van der Rohe, 17.