AR.

LUDWIG KARL
HILBERSEIMER
 Born :14th
September 1885 in
Karlsruhe,
Germany
Death : 6th
May1967
 LIFE
Hilberseimer studied architecture at the 
Karlsruhe Technical University from 1906 to 1910.
He left before completing a degree.
Later worked in the architectural office Behrens and
Neumark.
Until 1914 he was coworker in the office of Heinz
Lassen in Bremen.
Later he led the planning office for Zeppelinhallenbau in
Berlin Staaken.
Beginning in 1919 he was member of the Arbeitsrat für
Kunst and November Group, worked as independent
architect and town planner and published numerous
theoretical writings over art, architecture and town
construction
 WORK
Street hierarchy was first elaborated by Ludwig Hilberseimer in his
book City Plan, 1927.
Hilberseimer emphasized safety for school-age children to walk to school
while increasing the speed of the vehicular circulation system.
Beginning in 1929 at the Bauhaus, Hilberseimer developed studies
concerning town construction for the decentralization of large cities. He
developed a universal and global adaptable planning system (The new town
center, 1944).
Planned a gradual dissolution of major cities and a complete penetration of
landscape and settlement.
He proposed that in order to create a sustainable relationship between
humans, industry, and nature, human habitation should be built in a way to
secure all people against all disasters and crises.
His most notable built project is Lafayette Park, Detroit, an urban renewal
project designed in cooperation with architect Mies van der Rohe and
landscape architect Alfred Caldwell.
The Ludwig Karl Hilberseimer Papers collection, including drawings,
photographs, and other printerial material, is held by the 
Ryerson & Burnham Libraries in the Art Institute of Chicago.
 MAJOR WORKS DURING LIFETIME
Urbig House
Potsdam, Germany.

1917

Impressed by the work he did for the Riehl's, the Urbig family commissioned a
home from Mies in 1915. Mies' first design called for a modern flat roof, but this
was rejected. The new plan offered a more traditional hipped roof with five dormer
windows.
Such revisions were common, and led many architects in the early 20th century to
revert to conventional aesthetics. While Urbig House may be overly elaborate in
decor, it is finely made, demonstrating Mies' attention to detail and mastery of
 Friedrichstrasse Office
1921
Building
Although it was never built, Mies' design for the
Friedrichstrasse Office Building remains one of the most
important structures in 20th century architecture. For the
Friedrichstrasse architecture competition, Mies ignored
several rules dictated in the guidelines and presented a
radical concept to the committee: a skyscraper made
entirely of glass and steel. The design didn't win, much less
receive an official mention. Decades later, this style has
come to dominate corporate architecture.

Lange and Esters Houses

Krefeld, Germany 1930
These two houses sit side by side on the Wilhelmshofallee in the
artistocratic quarter of Krefeld, Germany. They were commissioned at or
about the same time by Josef Esters and Hermann Lange, two executives
of the silk weaving mills, or the Vereingte Seidenweberein A-G, which
make Krefeld famous. Mies worked on the two designs concurrently and
the construction of each was begun within a day of the other's. Lange
and Esters were collectors of contemporary art, so it seems fitting that
their homes are now contemporary art exhibition spaces for the
Kunstmuseen Krefeld. The lawn-turned-sculpture garden features works
by Richard Serra and Claus Oldenberg.
 Lemke House
Berlin, Germany

1932
Unique to the Lemke House is its courtyard. No
other house by Mies would feature this relation to
green space. It's also the last house built by Mies in
Germany, and he emigrated to the United States soon
after. Like the Lange and Esters Houses, the Lemke
House exists today as a contemporary art exhibition
space called the Mies van der Rohe House.
This private residence was built for Karl and Martha
Lemke. They purchased property on the banks of
Lake Obersee in Berlin in 1930, and construction of
Mies's design began two years later (while he was
the director of the Bauhaus). The home features
floor-to-ceiling windows that open to an outdoor
terrace. The interior is furnished with pieces
designed by Lilly Reich and Mies.
The Lemkes lived there until they were forced out by
the Soviet army in 1945. The house was then used as
a garage, and in the 1960's the Stasi, or state security
for the former East Germany, used it as janitors'
living quarters and to store laundry. The building
was protected with landmark status in 1977 and went
through major restoration in 2000 through 2002.
 MINERALS & METAL BUILDING

ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY,

CHICAGO,IL,USA
1943
Formerly the Armour Research Foundation (ARF) Metals Building, the opening of what is now called the
Minerals and Metals Building marked the first step toward the realization of Mies' master plan for the Illinois
Institute of Technology's Main Campus.
Not only was it the first building Mies designed for IIT, but it was also his first construction in America.
Dedicated on January 11, 1943, the building is unusual because it was completed during World War II. At the
time, very little was built, especially projects using steel, in order to conserve metal for the war effort. In fact,
IIT had even donated the steel fence around Ogden field to the government’s scrap metal drive.
In the interest of best serving the country, IIT also contributed by becoming the Midwestern center of wartime
technological training, offering tuition-free programs for “women’s defense training” and “white–collar men
whose jobs were ruined by war-time restrictions.” With programs in engineering drawing, industrial
chemistry, and ordinance inspection, IIT was determined to “train experts who will see that the metals in
Uncle Sam’s guns, ships and tanks are flawless.”
Therefore, construction on the Minerals and Metals Building was no doubt deemed a necessity for the war
effort, even with its use of steel. The dedication ceremony was kept short and simple to comply with wartime
restrictions. Still, in spite of the dour political atmosphere, IIT’s press release was full of hope, describing the
building as “virtually a utopia for investigation of metals and minerals.”
The press release also pronounces that the building “strikes the theme that will be carried out” in the new
campus plan. As was hoped, the theme struck was a modern one. At its 15th Anniversary Exhibition in 1944,
the Museum of Modern Art honored the Minerals and Metals Building as an outstanding example of modern
functional architecture. More recently, Franz Schulze described its use of glass and steel as a “revolutionary
 Despite these proclamations of the building’s importance, historian Kevin Harrington reminds us that
Minerals and Metals is “not something made by the God of Crown Hall.” Rather, he urges us to
understand the building as part of the development of Mies’ architectural language. As his first American
building, Minerals & Metals reflects Mies’ transition from forms that had been “dear to his heart” during
his days working in Europe to new forms that were “possible, necessary, and significant.”
Through multiple rounds of sketches, Mies made a “Herculean effort to adapt to the new conditions of
building in America.” Although the building is visually reminiscent of the Bauhaus in Dessau, its
structural premises are very different. It is in the Minerals and Metals Building that we first see Mies use
the rolled-steel I-beam as part of his structural grammar.
However, what really caught the attention of the architecture community was the visible, irregular steel
frame at the south end of the building. Critics declared it an homage to Piet Mondrian or Theo van
Doesburg and the tenets of de Stijl. The critics were wrong. Although Mies was aware of both artists’
work, his avant-garde use of steel was actually a map to the inside of the building, inaugurating a
technique he would use over and over again at IIT.
In the many years since the war ended, Minerals and Metals has served a variety of purposes ranging
from research lab to lecture hall. Most recently it has become the model shop for IIT’s Department of
Architecture, rumored to be the country’s largest model shop. The interior of Minerals and Metals now
resembles the machinery-filled space that it was originally designed for.
 CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE ARCHITECT
Ludwig Wittgenstein considered his chief contribution to philosophy to be in the
philosophy of mathematics, a topic to which he devoted much of his work between
1929 and 1944.As with his philosophy of language, Wittgenstein's views on
mathematics evolved from the period of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus,
changing from logicism which was endorsed by his mentor Bertrand Russell, to a
general anti-foundationalism and constructivism that was not readily accepted by
the mathematical community. The main source in Wittgenstein's thinking on
mathematics is the text compiled as Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics,
which contains the late Wittgenstein's views, notably a controversial repudiation of
Gödel's incompleteness theorems. The success of Wittgenstein's general philosophy
has tended to displace the real debates on more technical issues.
 Hillberseimer’s unbuilt project for
mixed-height apartment blocks and row
housing, 1930