Ludwig Mies van der Rohe From Traditional Neoclassical Homes to Modernism
AUK College of Art & Sciences/ID IND311 Interior Design History II Asst. Prof. Siniša Prvanov Spring 2019
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Contents:
Introduction 1. Barcelona Pavilion 1929. 2. Villa Tugendhat 1930. 3. Farnsworth House 1946. 4. New National Gallery, Berlin 1968. 5. Furniture Design
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INTRODUCTION
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (March 27, 1886 - August 17, 1969) was a German-American architect. Along with Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Frank Lloyd Wright, he is regarded as one of the pioneers of modernist architecture. Mies was a director of the Bauhaus, a seminal school in modern architecture. After Nazism's rise to power, and with its strong opposition to modernism (leading to the closing of the Bauhaus itself), Mies went to the United States. He accepted the position to head the architectural school at the Illinois Institute of Technology, in Chicago. Mies sought to establish a new architectural style that could represent modern times just as Classical and Gothic did for their own eras. He created a new twentieth-century architectural style, stated with extreme clarity and simplicity. His mature buildings made use of modern materials such as industrial steel and plate glass to define interior spaces. He strove toward an architecture with a minimal framework of structural order balanced against the implied freedom of unobstructed free-flowing open space. He called his buildings "skin and bones" architecture. He sought an objective approach that would guide the creative process of architectural design, but was always concerned with
Page 3 of 96 expressing the spirit of the modern era. He is often associated with his fondness for the aphorisms, "less is more" and "God is in the details". Early career Mies was born March 27, 1886 in Aachen, Germany. He worked in his father's stone carving shop and at several local design firms before he moved to Berlin, where he joined the office of interior designer Bruno Paul. He began his architectural career as an apprentice at the studio of Peter Behrens from 1908 to 1912, where he was exposed to the current design theories and to progressive German culture.
Figure 1. Portrait of German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
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He worked alongside Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius, who was later also involved in the development of the Bauhaus. Mies served as construction manager of the Embassy of the German Empire in Saint Petersburg under Behrens.
Traditionalism to Modernism After World War I, Mies began, while still designing traditional neoclassical homes, a parallel experimental effort. He joined his avant-garde peers in the long-running search for a new style that would be suitable for the modern industrial age. The weak points of traditional styles had been under attack by progressive theorists since the mid-nineteenth century, primarily for the contradictions of hiding modern construction technology with a facade of ornamented traditional styles. The mounting criticism of the historical styles gained substantial cultural credibility after World War I, a disaster widely seen as a failure of the old world order of imperial leadership of Europe. The aristocratic classical revival styles were particularly reviled by many as the architectural symbol of a now-discredited and outmoded social system. Progressive thinkers called for a completely new architectural design process guided by rational problem-solving and an exterior expression of modern materials and structure rather than, what they considered, the superficial application of classical facades.
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While continuing his traditional neoclassical design practice Mies began to develop visionary projects that, though mostly unbuilt, rocketed him to fame as an architect capable of giving form that was in harmony with the spirit of the emerging modern society. Boldly abandoning ornament altogether, Mies made a dramatic modernist debut with his stunning competition proposal for the faceted all-glass Friedrichstraße skyscraper in 1921, followed by a taller curved version in 1922 named the Glass Skyscraper. He continued with a series of pioneering projects, culminating in his two European masterworks: the temporary German Pavilion for the Barcelona exposition (often called the Barcelona Pavilion) in 1929 (a 1986 reconstruction is now built on the original site) and the elegant Villa Tugendhat in Brno, Czech Republic, completed in 1930. He joined the German avant-garde, working with the progressive design magazine G, which started in July 1923. He developed prominence as architectural director of the Werkbund, organizing the influential Weissenhof Estate prototype modernist housing exhibition. He was also one of the founders of the architectural association Der Ring. He joined the avant-garde Bauhaus design school as their director of architecture, adopting
Page 6 of 96 and developing their functionalist application of simple geometric forms in the design of useful objects. He served as its last director. Like many other avant-garde architects of the day, Mies based his architectural mission and principles on his understanding and interpretation of ideas developed by theorists and critics who pondered the declining relevance of the traditional design styles. He selectively adopted theoretical ideas such as the aesthetic credos of Russian Constructivism with their ideology of "efficient" sculptural assembly of modern industrial materials. Mies found appeal in the use of simple rectilinear and planar forms, clean lines, pure use of color, and the extension of space around and beyond interior walls expounded by the Dutch De Stijl group. In particular, the layering of functional sub-spaces within an overall space and the distinct articulation of parts as expressed by Gerrit Rietveld appealed to Mies.
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1. Barcelona Pavilion 1929.
Figure 2. The Barcelona Pavilion, Barcelona, 14 October 2010
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The Barcelona Pavilion designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, was the German Pavilion for the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona, Spain. This building was used for the official opening of the German section of the exhibition. It is an important building in the history of modern architecture, known for its simple form and its spectacular use of extravagant materials, such as marble, red onyx and travertine. The same features of minimalism and spectacular can be applied to the prestigious furniture specifically designed for the building, including the iconic Barcelona chair. It has inspired many important modernist buildings. 1.1 Concept Mies was offered the commission of this building in 1928 after his successful administration of the 1927 Werkbund exhibition in Stuttgart. The German Republic entrusted Mies with the artistic management and erection of not only the Barcelona Pavilion, but for the buildings for all the German sections at the 1929 International Exhibition. However, Mies had severe time constraints he had to design the Barcelona Pavilion in less than a year and was also dealing with uncertain economic conditions. In the years following World War I, Germany started to turn around. The economy started to recover after the 1924 Dawes Plan. The pavilion for the International Exhibition was supposed to represent the new Weimar Germany: democratic, culturally
Page 9 of 96 progressive, prospering, and thoroughly pacifist; a self-portrait through architecture. The Commissioner, Georg von Schnitzler said it should give "voice to the spirit of a new era". This concept was carried out with the realization of the "Free plan" and the "Floating roof"
1.2 Building
Mies's response to the proposal by von Schnitzler was radical. After rejecting the original site for aesthetic reasons, Mies agreed to a quiet site at the narrow side of a wide, diagonal axis, where the pavilion would still offer viewpoints and a route leading to one of the exhibition's main attractions, the Poble Espanyol. The pavilion was to be bare, with no exhibits, leaving only the structure accompanying a single sculpture and specially-designed furniture. This lack of accommodation enabled Mies to treat the Pavilion as a continuous space; blurring inside and outside. "The design was predicated on an absolute distinction between structure and enclosure a regular grid of cruciform steel columns interspersed by freely spaced planes". However, the structure was more of a hybrid style, some of these planes also acted as supports.
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The floor plan is very simple. The entire building rests on a plinth of travertine. A southern U-shaped enclosure, also of travertine, helps form a service annex and a large water basin. The floor slabs of the pavilion project out and over the pool—once again connecting inside and out. Another U-shaped wall on the opposite side of the site also forms a smaller water basin. This is where the statue by Georg Kolbe sits. The roof plates, relatively small, are supported by the chrome-clad, cruciform columns. This gives the impression of a hovering roof. The reflective columns appear to be struggling to hold the "floating" roof plane down, not to be bearing its weight.
Figure 3. Plan of the Barcelona Pavilion
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Figure 4. Exploded View of the Barcelona Pavilion
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Figure 5. Perspective View of the Barcelona Pavilion
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Figure 5. Barcelona Pavilion Circulatiin Path
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Mies wanted this building to become "an ideal zone of tranquillity" for the weary visitor, who should be invited into the pavilion on the way to the next attraction. Since the pavilion lacked a real exhibition space, the building itself was to become the exhibit. The pavilion was designed to "block" any passage through the site, rather, one would have to go through the building. Visitors would enter by going up a few stairs, and due to the slightly sloped site, would leave at ground level in the direction of the Poble Espanyol. The visitors were not meant to be led in a straight line through the building, but to take continuous turnabouts. The walls not only created space, but also directed visitor's movements. This was achieved by wall surfaces being displaced against each other, running past each other, and creating a space that became narrower or wider.
Figure 6. Pavilion interior and exterior views
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Another unique feature of this building is the exotic materials Mies chooses to use. Plates of high-grade stone materials like veneers of Tinos verde antico marble and golden onyx as well as tinted glass of grey, green, white, as well as translucent glass, perform exclusively as spatial dividers. Because this was planned as an exhibition pavilion, it was intended to exist only temporarily. The building was torn down in early 1930, not even a year after it was completed. However, thanks to black-and-white photos and original plans, a group of Catalan architects reconstructed the pavilion permanently between 1983 and 1986.
Figure 7. Onyx marble divider and its position.
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1.3 Art Work (Sculpture) The Pavilion was not only a pioneer for construction forms with a fresh, disciplined understanding of space, but also for modelling new opportunities for an association of free art and architecture. Mies placed Georg Kolbe's Alba ("Dawn") in the small water basin, leaving the larger one all the more empty. The sculpture also ties into the highly reflective materials Mies used he chose the place where these optical effects would have the strongest impact; the building offers multiple views of Alba. "From now on, in the sense of equality for juxtaposing building and visual work, sculptures were no longer to be applied retrospectively to the building, but rather to be a part of the spatial design, to help define and interpret it. To the day, one of the most notable examples is the Barcelona Pavilion"
Figure 8. Pavilion Exterior View and “Alba” sculptural work by Georg Kolbe
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2. Villa Tugendhat 1930.
Figure 9. exterior Villa Tugendhat
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Villa Tugendhat is a historical building in the wealthy neighbourhood of Černá Pole in Brno, Czech Republic. It is one of the pioneering prototypes of modern architecture in Europe, and was designed by the German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Built of reinforced concrete between 1928 and 1930 for Fritz Tugendhat and his wife Greta, the villa soon became an icon of modernism.
2.1 Design The free-standing three-story villa is on a slope and faces the south-west. The second story (the ground floor) consists of the main living and social areas with the conservatory and the terrace, and the kitchen and servants' rooms. The third story (the first floor) has the main entrance from the street with a passage to the terrace, the entrance hall, and rooms for the parents, children and the nanny with appropriate facilities. The chauffeur's flat with the garages and the terrace are accessed separately. Mies' design principle of "less is more" and emphasis on functional amenities created a fine example of early functionalism architecture, a groundbreaking new vision in building design at the time. Mies used a revolutionary iron framework, which enabled him to dispense with supporting walls and arrange the interior in order to achieve a feeling of
Page 19 of 96 space and light. One wall is a sliding sheet of plate glass that descends to the basement the way an automobile window does.
Figure 10. Villa Tugendhat back entrance view and cross-section drawing
The cost was very high due to the unusual construction method, luxurious materials, and the use of modern technology for heating and ventilation. The lower-ground level was used as a service area. An ultra-modern air-conditioning system was here and a glass façade that opens completely assisted by a mechanism built into the wall. The floor area was unusually large and open compared to the average family home of the period, which,
Page 20 of 96 in addition to the various storage rooms, made the structure unique if not confusing to visitors not used to such minimalism.
Figure 11. Villa Tugendhat aerial view, front view and view from the street after reconstruction in 2012.
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Figure 12. Villa Tugendhat 3rd floor plan.
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The house has a flat roof, and each floor has a different plan. The uppermost floor is entered directly from street level and includes a terrace that traverses the house and forms a balcony on the garden side. From here one reaches a small entrance hall, family bedrooms and services; the master bedroom and dressing room are on the garden side. The garage and caretaker's lodging are at the west end of the house. From the hallway and from the balcony there are stairways leading down to the main floor, which has three parts. The first part is the main living area with a winter garden, reception room, music corner, study and library, sitting areas and dining room.
Figure 13. Villa Tugendhat Function Axonometric Diagram.
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The second part has kitchen facilities, and the third part consists of the servants' area. The living area has large windows on two sides and is directly joined to the terrace, which is partly open, partly covered, and has a wide stairway leading down to garden level. The ground level has utility rooms and is used for technical purposes. The main structure of the house is made from reinforced concrete with steel frames. A structure of polished steel pillars supports the entire house. A steel skeleton also carries ceramic ceiling panels.
Figure 14. Villa Tugendhat Circulation Plan.
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Mies specified all the furnishings, in collaboration with interior designer Lilly Reich (two armchairs designed for the building, the Tugendhat chair and the Brno chair, are still in production).
Figure 15. Villa Tugendhat Furniture design.
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Figure 16. Villa Tugendhat Interior
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Figure 17. Villa Tugendhat Interior
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Figure 18. Villa Tugendhat Interior and furniture design.
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Figure 19. Villa Tugendhat Interior.
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Figure 20. Villa Tugendhat Interior Details.
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There were no paintings or decorative items in the villa, but the interior was by no means austere due to the use of naturally patterned materials such as the captivating onyx wall and rare tropical woods. The onyx wall is partially translucent and changes appearance when the evening sun is low. The architect managed to make the magnificent view from the villa an integral part of the interior.
Figure 21. Villa Tugendhat living room interior and finishing materials.
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3. Farnsworth House 1946.
Figure 22. Farnsworth House 1946.
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The Farnsworth House was designed and constructed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe between 1945 and 1951. It is a one-room weekend retreat in what then was a rural setting, located 55 miles (89 km) southwest of Chicago's downtown, on 24 ha estate site adjoining the Fox River, south of the city of Plano, Illinois. The steel and glass house was commissioned by Edith Farnsworth, M.D., a prominent Chicago nephrologist, as a place where she could engage in her hobbies playing the violin, translating poetry, and enjoying nature. Mies created a 140 m2 structure that is widely recognized as an iconic masterpiece of International Style of architecture. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was retained by Dr. Edith Farnsworth to design a weekend retreat during a dinner party in 1945. The wealthy client was highly intelligent, articulate, and intent on building a very special work of modern architecture, however, toward the end of construction, a dispute arose between architect and client that interfered with its completion by the architect.
Figure 23. Farnsworth House, Frontal view.
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Figure 24. House site plan.
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3.1 Planning Before turning to the planning of the Farnsworth House itself, that of its immediate prodecessors must be considered. The emphatic horizontal planes, glass-walled transparency and open interiors which Mies had been perfecting since 1921 had come together in a sublime synthesis in the Barcelona Pavilion. Having crystallized his idea in the essentially ceremonial and functional building, where such experiments in abstraction could be carried our relatively freely. Miss began also to incorporate them in a sequence of house designs.
Figure 25. Preliminary and final plans of the Farnsworth House.
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Figure 26. Final Plan.
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Figure 27. Exterior view and details.
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Figure 28. Entrance detail.
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Figure 29. Axonometric drawing.
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Figure 30. Farnsworth House Geometry.
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Figure 31. Farnsworth House Geometry.
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Figure 32. Farnsworth House Geometry. 3.2 The Structure The essential characteristics of the house are immediately apparent. The extensive use of clear floor-to-ceiling glass opens the interior to its natural surroundings to an extreme degree. Two distinctly expressed horizontal slabs, which form the roof and the floor, sandwich an open space for living. The slab edges are defined by exposed steel structural members painted pure white. The house is elevated 5 feet 3 inches (1.60 m) above a flood plain by eight wide flange steel columns which are attached to the sides of the floor and ceiling slabs. The slab ends extend beyond the column supports, creating cantilevers. A
Page 43 of 96 third floating slab, an attached terrace, acts as a transition between the living area and the ground. The house is accessed by two sets of wide steps connecting ground to terrace and then to porch.
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Mies found the large open exhibit halls of the turn of the century to be very much in character with his sense of the industrial era. Here he applied the concept of an unobstructed space that is flexible for use by people. The interior appears to be a single open room, its space ebbing and flowing around two wood blocks; one a wardrobe cabinet and the other containing a kitchen, toilet, and fireplace block (the "core"). The larger fireplace-kitchen core seems to be a separate house nesting within the larger glass house. The building is essentially one large room filled with freestanding elements that provide subtle differentiations within an open space, implied but not dictated, zones for sleeping, cooking, dressing, eating, and sitting. Very private areas such as toilets, and mechanical rooms are enclosed within the core. Drawings recently made public by the Museum of Modern Art indicate that the architect provided ceiling details that allow for the addition of curtain tracks that would allow privacy separations of the open spaces into three "rooms". The drapery was never installed. Mies applied this space concept, with variations, to his later buildings, most notably at Crown Hall, his Illinois Institute of Technology campus masterpiece. The notion of a single room that can be freely used or zoned in any way, with flexibility to accommodate changing uses, free of interior supports, enclosed in glass and supported by a minimum of
Page 45 of 96 structural framing located at the exterior, is the architectural ideal that defines Mies' American career. The Farnsworth House is significant as his first complete realization of this ideal, a prototype for his vision of what modern architecture in an era of technology should be.
Figure 33. Figure 30. Farnsworth House Situation Plan.
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3.3 Integration with nature
The Farnsworth House sits on a floodplain that faces the Fox River, differentiating the vast meadow and a variety of trees from its white exterior. The isolated, private residence establishes the architect's concept of simple living. The private residence was created in order to enable its inhabitant to experience the rural silence and the passing of the seasons. Open views from all sides of the building help enlarge the area and aid flow between the living space and its natural surroundings. The Farnsworth House stands as an independent structure. The house is in perfect harmony with nature – there is no garden architecture, no pathways, or flower beds. A large maple tree shelters the raised travertine marble terrace. The elements of the surrounding nature coincide with the panes of glass and the exterior of the house. The exterior includes materials of steel, natural stone, and glass. The steel, painted white, creates the structure that supports the floor and ceiling slabs. They are composed of concrete, along with radiant coil set in the floor used for heating purposes. The remainder of the exterior consists of the 1/4-inch-thick glass panels that enclose the space.
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As Mies stated on his achievement, "If you view nature through the glass walls of the Farnsworth House, it gains a more profound significance than if viewed from the outside. That way more is said about nature—it becomes part of a larger whole." Farnsworth House was created to display nature in a simple and pure form. One of the many features of the immediate site was a large Black Maple tree, which was integral for the placement and orientation of the house on the site. Incidentally, the same species of tree, which also is quite abundant in the state park to the south, was among the reasons for the land in the immediate vicinity of the house being designated as a state park in the 1960s. Due to disease and old age, the tree died in the early 2000s and subsequently, was removed, as most of the trunk of the tree remained and was being held in place through cables and bracing. The house's close proximity to the tree, some ten feet, led to a feeling of oneness with nature, which was integral to the design aesthetic that Mies sought in designing the house.
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Figure 34. Farnsworth House exterior view..
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The house is anchored to the site in the cooling shadow of a large and majestic black maple tree. As Mies often did, the entrance is located on the sunny side, facing the river instead of the street, moving visitors around corners, and revealing views of the house and site from various angles as they approach the front door. The simple elongated cubic form of the house is parallel to the flow of the river, and the terrace platform is slipped downstream in relation to the elevated porch and living platform. Outdoor living spaces were designed to be extensions of the indoor space, with an open terrace and a screened porch (the screens have been removed). Yet the synthetic element always remains clearly distinct from the natural by its geometric forms that are highlighted by the choice of white as their primary color.
Figure 35. Farnsworth House frontal view.
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Figure 36. Farnsworth House exterior view..
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Figure 37. Farnsworth House exterior view..
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Figure 38. Farnsworth House exterior view.
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Figure 39. Farnsworth House interior view.
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Figure 40. Farnsworth House interior view.
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Figure 41. Farnsworth House interior view.
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Figure 42. Farnsworth House interior view.
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Figure 43. Farnsworth House interior view.
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Figure 40. Situation Plan
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Fi
Figure 41, Floor Plan
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Architecture as an expression of the times The Farnsworth House addresses basic issues about the relationship between the individual and his society. Mies viewed the technology-driven modern era in which an ordinary individual exists as largely beyond one's control. But he believed the individual can and should exist in harmony with the culture of one's time for successful fulfillment. His career was a long and patient search for an architecture that would be a true expression of the essential soul of his epoch. He perceived our epoch as the era of industrial mass production, a civilization shaped by the forces of rapid technological development. Mies wanted to use architecture as a tool to help reconcile the individual spirit with the new mass society in which the individual exists. His answer to the issue is to accept the need for an orderly framework as necessary for existence, while making space for the freedom needed by the individual human spirit to flourish. He created buildings with free and open space within a minimal framework, using expressed structural columns. He did not believe in the use of architecture for social engineering of human behavior, as many other modernists did, but his architecture does represent ideals and aspirations. His mature design work is a physical expression of his understanding of the modern epoch. He provides the occupants of his buildings with
Page 71 of 96 flexible and unobstructed space in which to fulfill themselves as individuals, despite their anonymous condition in the modern industrial culture.
Figure 50. Farnsworth House frontal view.
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4. New National Gallery, Berlin 1968.
Figure 51. New National Gallery exterior view
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The Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery) at the Kulturforum is a museum for modern art in Berlin, with its main focus on the early 20th century. It is part of the National Gallery of the Berlin State Museums. The museum building and its sculpture gardens were designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and opened in 1968.
Figure 52. New National Gallery exterior view.
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Architecture Dimensions, specifications and materials The plan of the Neue Nationalgalerie is divided into two distinct stories. The upper story serves as an entrance hall as well as the primary special exhibit gallery, totaling 2,683 m2 (28,880 sq ft) of space.
It is elevated from street level and only accessible by three flights of steps. Though it only comprises a small portion of the total gallery space, the exhibition pavilion stands boldly as the building’s primary architectural
expression.
Figure 52. New National Gallery floorplans
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Eight cruciform columns, two on each length placed so as to avoid corners, support a square pre-stressed steel roof plate 1.8 meters thick and painted black. An eighteen-meter cantilever allows for ample space between the gallery’s glazed façade and eight supporting columns. Mies’ office studied this cantilever extensively in various scaled models in order to ensure its structural stability as well as the seeming flatness of the roof plate. The floor-to-ceiling height reaches 8.4 meters, and the space is laid out on a 3.6- meter square dimensional grid. Black anodized aluminum “egg crates” fit within the grid house lighting fixtures, with air ducts suspended above.
Figure 53. New National Gallery cross-section
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Figure 54. New National Gallery circulation and structure plan
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The lower story serves primarily as housing for the gallery’s permanent collection, though it also includes a library, offices, and a shop and café, and totals about 10,000 m2 (110,000 sq ft) of space. It is three quarters below ground so as to allow for safe storage of the artwork, its sole glazed façade looking out on the museum’s sloping sculpture garden and providing ample indirect interior lighting.
Figure 55. New National Gallery interior view.
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A rooftop plaza further extends the museum’s exhibition space
Figure 62. View from the garden patio of the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
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5. Furniture Design
Figure 62. Tubular Chair
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Mies, often in collaboration with Lilly Reich, designed modern furniture pieces using new industrial technologies that have become popular classics, such as the Barcelona chair and table, the Brno chair, and the Tugendhat chair.
His furniture is known for fine craftsmanship, a mix of traditional luxurious fabrics like leather combined with modern chrome frames, and a distinct separation of the supporting structure and the supported surfaces, often employing cantilevers to enhance the feeling of lightness created by delicate structural frames.
Figure 63. Tubular Chair
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Figure 64.Tubular stool
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Figure 65.
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Figure 66.
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Figure 66.
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Figure 67. Tubular table.
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Figure 68.
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Figure 69. Steel tube lounge chair.
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Figure 70. Steel tube lounge chair section drawing.
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Figure 71. Public seating experimentation example.
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Figure 72. Brno Chair.
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Barcelona chair The Barcelona chair is a chair designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich. It was originally designed for the German Pavilion, that country's entry for the International Exposition of 1929, which was hosted by Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was first used in Villa Tugendhat, a World Heritage Site designed by Mies van der Rohe in the city of Brno (Czech Republic). The frame was initially designed to be bolted together, but was redesigned in 1950 using stainless steel, which allowed the frame to be formed by a seamless piece of metal, giving it a smoother appearance. Bovine leather replaced the ivory-colored pigskin which was used for the original pieces. Since 1953 Knoll Inc has manufactured Barcelona chairs. They make the frame in two different steel configurations, chrome and stainless. They say that their chairs are almost completely hand-laboured,[4] and that a facsimile of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's signature is stamped into each chair.
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Figure 73. Barcelona Chair.
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Figure 74. Barcelona Chair technical drawing.
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REFERENCES:
Blake, Peter (1976). The Master Builders. New York: W W Norton & Company, Inc. Carter, Peter (1974). Mies van der Rohe at Work. New York: Praeger. Daza, Ricardo (2000). Looking for Mies. Barcelona: Actar. Puente, Moisés (2008). Conversations with Mies Van Der Rohe. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. Schulze, Franz (1985). Mies Van Der Rohe; A Critical Biography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Inc. Schulze, Franz; Windhorst, Edward (2012). Mies Van Der Rohe, a Critical Biography (New and Revised Edition). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Sharp, Dennis (1991). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Architects and Architecture. New York: Whitney Library of Design. p. 109. Spaeth, David (1985). Mies Van Der Rohe. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc. Zimmerman, Claire (2015). Mies Van Der Rohe. Köln Germany: Taschen.
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