Mies

Book excerpt: The classic and definitive monograph on iconic architect Mies van der Rohe This is the most readable, comprehensive, and beautiful book ever published on one of the twentieth century's most influential architects, now available with a stunning new cover. Known for the beauty and purity of his work, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe built remarkable houses, skyscrapers, museums, and multibuilding campuses. Accompanied by more than 700 drawings, photographs, plans, and diagrams, Mertins' rich and highly readable text traces the aesthetic and intellectual context for all of Mies van der Rohe's work, with in-depth discussions of his most important buildings and projects. The clarity of Mies's architecture belies the diversity of his interests, which included philosophy and science as well as design, and Mertin's rigorous and accessible text gives the reader a clear description of all the most important of Mies's buildings as well as the intellectual contexts for their design. Includes such buildings as: the Barcelona Pavilion in Spain; the Tugendhat House in Brno, Czech Republic; S. R. Crown Hall at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, USA; and the New National Gallery in Berlin, Germany.