Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe

Corbu and Mies

The Masters of Modern Architecture
Frank Lloyd Wright Walter Gropius Mies van der Rohe Le Corbusier
1867 – 1959 1883 –1969 1886 –1969 1887 – 1965
Peter Behrens
(1868 – 1940)
German architect and
industrial designer

AEG Turbine Hall in Berlin, 1909

Desiged objects, typefaces, and

important buildings

Member of the German

Werkbund in 1907, when he
also began designing for AEG,
pioneered corporate design

Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier

and Walter Gropius worked for
him
 Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret
1887 – 1965
Corbu

Swiss-French architect,
designer, painter, urban
planner, writer

pioneers of modern
architecture

Le Corbusier
Villa Savoye
Poissy, France, 1931
Purism
Villa Fallet, 1905 Villa Schwob, 1916
Switzerland Switzerland
Le Corbusier Le Corbusier
Towards a New Architecture
Le Corbusier
1914–15, Maison Dom-Ino
Le Corbusier
Citrohan House 1920

1920s Citroen
Le Corbusier, Le Corbusier
Pavillon de l'Esprit Nouveau, 1925 Project for pre-fab apartment
Paris building

Model T Ford
Villa Stein, 1926-1928
Le Corbusier
Garches, Paris, France
The Villa Savoye in Poissy, France (near Paris) 1928–1931
Five Points for a
new architecture
Ville Radieuse, Le Corbusier, 1930 (precedents in the 1920s)
Ville Radieuse, Le Corbusier, 1930 (precedents in the 1920s)
 Le Corbusier, Unité
d'Habitation
Marseille, France, 1947–1952
 Disney's
Contemporary
Resort
Walt Disney
World,
Florida, 1971
Chandigarh India, 1950s
Palace of Assembly (Chandigarh) (1952–1961)
Secretariat Building, 1953
Chandigarh, India
Le Corbusier
The Chapel of Notre Dame du Haut, Le Corbusier
Ronchamp, France, 1954
 TWA Terminal Notre Dame, 1954
Eero Saarinen du Haut,
JFK Airport, New York Le Corbusier
1962 Ronchamp, France,
Frank Gehry
Disney Concert Hall
Villa Stein, 1926-1928
Le Corbusier
Garches, Paris, France

Richard Meier
Smith House,
Darien, Connecticut, 1965–1967
Paul Rudolph, Yale Art and Architecture Building
New Haven, Connecticut, 1963
Brutalism
 Frank Lloyd Wright
Larkin Building, 1906

Paul Rudolph F.L. Wright

Paul Rudolph
Yale Art and Architecture Building
Mies
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
1886 – 1969
German-born American architect

One of the Masters of

Modern Architecture
Friedrichstrasse Skyscraper
Competition
1921
Berlin
Barcelona Pavilion
German Pavilion
Mies
Barcelona, Spain
1929
Crown Hall, Mies van der Rohe
IIT campus, Chicago
1950 - 1956
Seagram Building
Mies van der Rohe
and Philip Johnson
1958
New York City
Leiter Building (Sears Building)
William Le Baron Jenny
Chicago, Illinois
1891
The Reliance Building
Chicago, Illinois
Burnham and Root
1890
Tribune Tower
John Mead Howells and
Raymond Hood

Chicago, Illinois
1923-25
30 Rockefeller Plaza
Rockefeller Center
New York
1930-39
Lever House
SOM
1953
New York
Seagram Building
Mies, 1958
New York
IAC Building, Frank Gehry, 2007, New York
 XXX

860–880 Lake Shore Drive

Apartments
Mies, Chicago, 1949

”God is in the Details.”

”The universal space.”
Being
 

We are always doing two things:

• A particular activity
• Being (existing)
Mies is more interested in Being:

 
• “Architecture is the will of an epoch translated into space.”

What it means to exist in this time and place, in mid 20th Century
industrial America.
Being
 

We are always doing two things:

• A particular activity
• Being (existing)
Mies is more interested in Being:
 

“Architecture is the real battleground of the spirit. Architecture depends

on its time. It is the crystallization of its inner structure, the slow unfolding
of its form.

It [the industrial technology of his time] is a real historical movement—

one of the great movements that shape and represent their epoch. It can
be compared only with the Classic discovery of man as a person, the
Roman will to power, and the religious movement of the Middle Ages.”
 

What it means to exist in this time and place, in mid 20th Century
industrial America.
Cultural Context

• The Era of the Second Generation American Industrial Titans

Walter Chrysler, Alfred Sloan, Jr., David Sarnoff
(First generation: Rockefeller, Carnegie, Vanderbilt , etc.)

• The Era of the Organization Man

Thomas John Watson, Sr., Robert McNamara

• The Era of Cultural Revolution

Charlie Parker ("Bird”), Jackson Pollock, Jack Kerouac,
Norman Mailer, Elvis
The Era of the Second Generation
American Industrial Titans

The Chrysler Building

William Van Alen (1883 – 1954)
Started 1928
Cultural Context

• The Era of the Second Generation American Industrial Titans

Walter Chrysler, Alfred Sloan, Jr., David Sarnoff
(First generation: Rockefeller, Carnegie, Vanderbilt , etc.)

• The Era of the Organization Man

Thomas John Watson, Sr., Robert McNamara (The Wiz Kids)

• The Era of Cultural Revolution

Charlie Parker ("Bird”), Jackson Pollock, Jack Kerouac,
Norman Mailer, Elvis
Gregory Peck The Era of the
The Man in the Organization Man
Gray Flannel Suit
Cultural Context

• The Era of the Second Generation American Industrial Titans

Walter Chrysler, Alfred Sloan, Jr., David Sarnoff
(First generation: Rockefeller, Carnegie, Vanderbilt , etc.)

• The Era of the Organization Man

Thomas John Watson, Sr., Robert McNamara

• The Era of Cultural Revolution

Charlie Parker ("Bird”), Jackson Pollock, Jack Kerouac,
Norman Mailer, Elvis, Steve Jobs
The Era of Cultural Revolution TWA Terminal
Eero Saarinen, 1962, JFK Airport, New York
Mies’s Legacy
Mies was a lion standing in the
path of all other architects.
 
How do you deal with a lion
standing in your path?
 
• You can surrender to it
• You can deviate around it
• You can wrestle with it and
attempt to defeat it
 
Peter Behrens
Hoechst Administration Building
Frankfurt, 1920s
Brick Expressionism
END