BUILDING CONSTRUCTION

Building Construction



Building Construction

Introduction

Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe was born in the year 1886 in Aachen, Germany. His father was a stonemason, and the young Mies underwent training under him, after which, at the age of nineteen, he moved on to Berlin. Berlin being a land of numerous opportunities at the time, Mies was able to train under the 'art nouveau' architect and Interior Designer, Bruno Paul. At the age of twenty, Mies van der Rohe was good enough to receive his own first independent commission to build a house for the famous philosopher, Alois Riehl. By the year 1908, Mies started to work for the architect, Peter Behrens, and although he was technically working for this architect, Mies was also studying the architectural styles and ways of the two famous architects of the time, the Prussian Karl Friedrich Schinkel, and Frank Lloyd Wright, and by 1921, Mies was able to open his own studio in Berlin. (Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, 1886-1969: www.designboom.com)

Mies Van der Rohe BUlding Vs Todays Modern Building

This was the time of the World War I, and soon after the War, Mies began to get interested in the study of skyscrapers, and he thereafter designed two novel and innovative steel framed towers that would be encased in glass, one of them being the Friedrichstrasse, in 1921, and even though this design was never co.

Mies became iconic of the cool and minimalist, 'less is more' internationally acclaimed style during the first half of the twentieth century, when his contemporaries were the famous Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius. It was in 1927 that the design and the patent for his cantilevered chair 'MR 20' was created, and this single event managed to shoot Mies into the limelight. (Mies Van der Rohe: www.r20thcentury.com) It is often said that the modern cityscape is partly owed to the minimalist designs of Mies van der Rohe, with the numerous towers made up of glass and steel. In a similar manner, Mies van Der Rohe's chair designs are exceptional in their sense of proportion, and in their minimalist forms, and also in their exquisite attention to detail. (Designer: Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe)

Mies also stated that when the outer walls are being put into place, then a morass of meaningless and trivial forms would inadvertently hide the very basic structural system, on which the artistic design is generally based. When it is glass that is placed in place of the old and traditional wall, then this means that the creator has taken into consideration the fact that from old problems and old forms can arise new forms, and when glass, which cannot hide anything at all because of its basic nature of transparency, is used instead of a wall, the result is not only a new solution, but also a beautiful new means of construction. In addition, the structural principles on which the building is based would also be revealed very clearly when glass is used instead of a wall, and today, ...