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Farnsworth House went to the extremes of modernism, neatly A consummation of Miesian design
inverting (as we shall see) most of the architectural devices At first sight Mies's first and last built houses, the Riehl House of
developed over the past 2,500 years. 1907 and the Farnsworth House of 40 years later, could hardly
In view of its status as an architectural landmark we should be more different. Beneath the contrasting appearances,
try to locate this luculent design in two contexts - one personal though, there is a recognizable continuity of design approach.
(the Farnsworth House as the culmination of the architect's 40- From first to last there shines through Mies's work a dignified
year sequence of continually-evolving house designs) and the serenity, a concern for regularity and orderliness, and a
other much wider (the Farnsworth House as an ultimate icon of precision of detailing that are just as important as the obvious
that strand of European modernism that became known as the differences seen in successive stages of his work.
International Style) - before going on to more practical matters These differences were not capricious but reflect a continuous
such as why the house was built, how it was built, and how it and sustained effort - particularly after about 1920 - to
has performed. eliminate what the earnest Mies saw as inessentials and to distil
his buildings to some kind of irreducible architectonic essence
of the age."
While it is always a mistake to impose an unduly neat 'line of second covered the years 1919-38, when he began to
development' on the complex, uncertain and partly accidental experiment (though only in some of his designs) with such
career of any designer, as though each successive work repre- entrancing novelties as irregular plans, interiors designed as
sented a calculated step towards a clearly foreseen goal, continuous flowing fields rather than separate rooms, extreme
hindsight does allow us to divide Mies's development into three horizontal transparency, and floating floor and roof planes. The
recognizable phases. The first was pre-1919, when his designs third was post-1938, when he returned to the classicism and
were invariably solid, regular and soberly traditional. The sobriety of his earlier years, but expressed now in steel-framed
buildings rather than solid masonry, and incorporating the Stock Exchange walls are of unplastered brickwork inside and
transparency and (in some of the pavilions) emphatic horizon- out, and the roof trusses completely exposed, so that there is
tality developed in his avant-garde projects of the 1920s. no distinction between what is structure and what is finish,
The first of these formative periods had its roots in Mies's or between what is structure and what is architecture.7 Mies
youth in Aachen where, the son of a master mason, he came to later recollected that it was at that point 'that the idea of a clear
love the town's historic buildings. He later recalled that 'few of construction came to me as one of the fundamentals we should
them were important buildings. They were mostly very simple, accept.'8 What especially appealed to him was Berlage's 'careful
but very clear. I was impressed by the strength of these buildings construction that was honest down to the bone', forming the
because they did not belong to any epoch. They had been there basis, as Mies saw it, of 'a spiritual attitude [that] had nothing to
for over a thousand years and were still impressive, and nothing do with classicism, nothing to do with historic styles.'8
could change that. All the great styles passed, but they were Between these mutually reinforcing experiences in Aachen,
still there ... as good as on the day they were built.'5 Italy and Amsterdam there was a somewhat different influence
This early affinity with sober clarity was confirmed in 1907 - that of the German neo-classicist Karl Friedrich Schinkel,
when he visited Italy and was deeply impressed by his first whose works Mies came to know while working in the Berlin
sight of Roman aqueducts, the heroic ruins of the Basilica of studio of Peter Behrens between 1908 and 1912.10 Mies did
Constantine, and in particular the bold stonework facade of the not particularly admire Schinkel's early work, which to him
Palazzo Pitti with its cleanly-cut window openings, of which he represented the end of a past era, but he considered that the
said: 'You see with how few means you can make architecture- Bauakademie of 1831-5 'introduced a new epoch'. The lessons
and what architecture!'6 he absorbed from Schinkel were concerned less with honest
And it crystallized into coherent principle when in 1912, on construction (though the facades of the Kaufhaus project of
a visit to the Netherlands, Mies encountered the work of 1827 and the later Bauakademie did reflect their underlying
Hendrik Petrus Berlage. He was particularly struck by Berlage's structures with notable clarity) than with architectonic
Amsterdam Stock Exchange (1903), an outstanding example of composition. His compositional borrowings from Schinkel
the 'monolothic' way of building - that is to say one in which the included a tendency to place buildings on raised platforms to
materials of construction are nakedly displayed (like the marble create a sense of noble repose; a stern sobriety of architectural
components of Greek temples), in contradiction to the layered' form; highly regular spacing and careful proportioning of facade
approach where basic materials are covered by more sophis- elements; and an exceptional clarity of articulation, with the
ticated claddings (like the walls of Roman architecture). The separate elements of the building clearly differentiated.'1
Seminal influences on Mies: The compositional discipline of
The bold, sharply-incised stone Schinkel: the Altes Museum in Berlin
facade of the Palazzo Pitti in 1822-8
Florence, 1435
The rude honesty of Berlage:
Amsterdam Stock Exchange, 1903
Here, then, were two complementary influences that would (1923-4), and of the cubic forms and immaculately-detailed of house design, his spatial ideas may be summarized as
preoccupy Mies for the rest of his life - a Berlage-like affinity brickwork of the Wolf (1925-7), Esters (1927-30) and Lange follows. First he started to dissolve the interior subdivisions of
with 'honesty' that led him to theorize that building form should (1927-30) houses. These designs are especially notable for the dwelling, moving away from the box-like rooms of traditional
be determined by the structural problem being solved, and the their Berlage-like use of weighty, unplastered brickwork walls western architecture towards more open interiors - the latter
materials employed, and not by abstract rules of composition;12 at a time when European modernism strove mostly for a probably showing the intertwined influences of Frank Lloyd
counter-balanced by a Schinkelesque love of classical form smooth, white, lightweight appearance. Wright, the Japanese house" and the De Stijl movement.2'
that led him in the converse direction, yearning to develop After returning from military service in January 1919, Mies The first hints of this progressive opening-up and thinning-out
architectural forms of abstracted perfection. He was aware of underwent an astonishing transformation, and began a distinct of the interior appear in the unrealized Brick Country House
the conflict, saying in 1966: 'After Berlage I had to fight with second developmental phase. Berlin was then in a ferment of project. Its Berlage-like brick walls, while as solidly-built and
myself to get away from the classicism of Schinkel"3 - a battle avant-garde activity, both political and artistic; Mies was densely-packed as those of the past, are loosely arranged to
he seems largely to have lost, with the compositional willingly caught up in these movements," and in 1921 he began suggest rather than enclose a series of doorless spaces that
sophistication of Schinkel generally prevailing over the rude to produce a sequence of projects that bore little resemblance substituted for rooms.21 The idea is partly realized in the
14
honesty of Berlage. to anything he (or indeed anyone else) had done before. These 1928-30 Tugendhat House, whose main floor is opened up to
Had his development stopped at that point, Mies might have designs, manifesto-like in their vivid clarity, helped to change become a single space within which dining, living and study
spent the rest of his career as a consummate designer of the face of twentieth-century architecture, and their influence areas are lightly suggested by screens of maccassar ebony,
somewhat blocky buildings characterized by clarity, regularity would be unmistakably visible in the later Farnsworth House. onyx and translucent glass. The final step, via a series of unbuilt
and discipline (derived from Schinkel); making increasing use of His experiments from 1919-38 involved progressive trans- projects,2Z is the Farnsworth House which has no full-height
exposed brickwork (inspired by Berlage); and showing also the formations of the kind of space that is shaped by architecture, internal subdivisions except for a service core enclosing
powerful forms and glassiness of Peter Behrens"5 and the open and of the kind of structure that helps do the shaping. separate bathrooms and a utility room.
interiors, powerful outward thrust and emphatic horizontality of The Glass Skyscraper project of 1922 (figure 10), with its Parallel to the above process Mies also started to dissolve
Frank Lloyd Wright.16 open interiors and transparent envelope and its clear distinction the boundary between inside and outside. The plan of the
It took years of digestion before 'inputs' became 'outputs' between structure (slim columns and hovering slabs) and unbuilt Brick Country House, while clearly influenced by Frank
with the gradually-developing Mies; and while some of the claddings (a diaphonous skin), presents a vivid illustration of Lloyd Wright,23 opens out into the site in a way unprecedented
18
above characteristics are indeed visible in the severe Mies's spatial and structural ideas. But this project is an office in western architecture. The Glass Room at the Werkbund
monumentality of the Bismarck Memorial (1910) and Kroller building, and the specific antecedents of the Farnsworth House Exhibition of 1927 uses glass walls to reduce the distinction
House (1912) projects, others were only to appear much later. are more appropriately traced in his house designs, so it is to between inside and outside. And finally came the 1928-9
One thinks for instance of the fluid interior and outward- those that we must turn. Barcelona Pavilion, an assembly of free-standing partitions
thrusting composition of the Brick Country House project Looking then at Mies's development in the specific context under a floating roof in which it is quite impossible to say at
ment with the Chicago steel frame, seen to perfection in the
Farnsworth House, was what he himself referred to as 'skin
and bones' design - a thin external skin (preferably glass) fitted
to a skeletal frame (preferably steel) of the utmost clarity and
elegance, with maximum differentiation between load-bearing
frame and non-load-bearing skin.26
In this last period his work underwent a marked change of
temper. Seemingly sated with the irregular plans and free-
floating planes of the avant-garde experiments of the 1920s,
Mies rather surprisingly reverted after about 1938 to the sober
classicism of his early architecture, shown now in buildings with
and other, and led naturally to the clinically white, glassy and
sparsely furnished buildings of Mies and his contemporaries.
And there was, secondly, a spiritual aspect. Throughout his
life the apparently technology-driven Mies van der Rohe was
actually an earnest searcher after the deeper meanings behind
everyday existence.27 Some time between 1924 and 1927
he moved to the view that 'building art is always the spatial
expression of spiritual decisions' and began to gravitate away
from the rather mechanistic functionalists of the Neue
Sachlichkeit ('new objectivity') movement.28 He had for many
years been pondering the writings of Catholic philosophers
such as St Thomas Aquinas, and now discovered a new book
by Siegfried Ebeling titled DerRaum als Membran. This was
a mystical tract which treated the building as an enclosing
membrane forming a space for concentration and mystic
celebration.29 It is clear from the underlinings in Mies's personal
copy that he took Ebeling's arguments seriously.
Though this period of spirituality seems to have faded some-
what after his Barcelona Pavilion, and he gradually returned to
drier and more objective design attitudes as noted above, the
dignified serenity of pavilions such as the Farnsworth House
and the New National Gallery in Berlin (1962-8) bear witness to
Mies's abiding preoccupation with the creation of orderly, noble
and indeed quasi-spiritual spaces in our turbulent world.
The outcome at Fox River of all the themes traced above -
aesthetic, social and spiritual - is a tranquil weekend house
of unsurpassed clarity, simplicity and elegance. Every physical
element has been distilled to its irreducible essence. The
products-even if the effect had to be faked, as it usually was. with Edith Farnsworth he was given the commission.
Where traditional buildings were ornamented, modern buildings It was, for Mies, an ideal challenge. A cabin for weekend use
must be bare. Where traditional houses had rooms, modern by a single person was the kind of programme to which he best
ones must be open-plan. Where traditional rooms were thickly responded. Rather like the Barcelona Pavilion of 1928-941 the
carpeted and curtained, and densely filled with furniture and Farnsworth House was a project in which the tiresome realities
bric-a-brac, modern ones must have hard, clean surfaces and of everyday life (the need for privacy, the accumulation of
be virtually devoid of furniture and possessions. possessions, the daily litter and clutter) could be disregarded
And so on. Though there were important continuities in a single-minded quest for transcendental elegance.
between classicism and modernism,37 stylistic inversions such The site was a narrow seven-acre strip of deciduous
as those above (and others which interested readers may trace woodland beside the Fox River. Its southern boundary was
for themselves) dominated the mostly white, glassy, flat- formed by the river-bank and a thin line of trees; the northern
surfaced, sparsely-furnished buildings selected for publication boundary by a gentle grassy rise and a thicker grove of trees,
in 1932 in The International Style, five of them by Mies van der along which ran a minor public road giving access to the site.
Rohe.38 In the Farnsworth House these characteristics are taken The eastern boundary was also formed by a grove of trees;
so far, and distilled into a composition of such elegance and and the western boundary by Fox River Drive, the main road to
single-minded clarity, that it can stand as a late icon of what the Piano. Between these features lay a grassy meadow, idyllically
International Style of the late 1920s and early 1930s had been isolated except for the (then) lightly-used road to the west.
'trying to be'. Initial progress was rapid. Mies started designing within a
year, and a model closely resembling the final design was
Client, site and brief exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1947.
In late 1945 Mies van der Rohe, then aged 59 and still relatively He was ready to proceed but Dr Farnsworth had to wait for an
unknown in America,33 met (probably at a dinner party) an inheritance before authorizing a start on site. Construction
intelligent and art-conscious 42-year-old Chicago medical finally began in September 1949, and the house was completed
specialist called Edith Farnsworth.40 She mentioned in conver- in 1951.
sation that she owned a riverside site on the Fox River, about 60
miles west of Chicago, and was thinking of building there a The lawsuit
weekend retreat. She wondered aloud whether his office might By then, unfortunately, the initially sympathetic relationship
be interested. He was, and after several excursions to the site between architect and client had turned sour. Everyone who
27,28 Preliminary and final plans of 30 Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye, 1928-9
the Farnsworth House
29 An early twentieth-cenfury villa in
Aachen (anonymous)
knew them agrees that this was at least partly due to a failed and critics had been overwhelmed by the clarity, polish and would conduct exalted discussions about life and art;50 and
romance between Mies van der Rohe and Edith Farnsworth. At precision of the design but the April 1953 issue of the more were her subsequent attacks an expression of rage at the man
the start of the project they worked closely together, had picnics populist (and in many respects more realistic) House Beautiful who had let her down, rather than a comment on the house?
on the river bank, and Dr Farnsworth was breathlessly excited attacked the house itself, the International Style of which it is an It seems likely. Despite her criticisms Edith Farnsworth
by both the man and the emerging design. Recalling the evening exemplar, and the Bauhaus which was the seedbed of this kind continued to use the house until 1971, though treating it with
she first discussed the house with Mies she later said that 'the of design. The author, Elizabeth Gordon, accused the scant respect. Adrian Gale saw it in 1958 and found 'a
effect was tremendous, like a storm, a flood, or an Act of God.'42 architecture of being 'cold' and 'barren'; the furniture 'sterile', sophisticated camp site rather than a weekend dreamhouse'.
And in June 1946, a few months after that revelatory evening, 'thin' and 'uncomfortable'; Mies's design as an attack on When its subsequent purchaser Peter Palumbo visited Dr
she sent Mies a handwritten letter: traditional American values.45 Farnsworth in 1971 he was depressed to see an approach path
'Dear Mies Frank Lloyd Wright, who in the 1930s and early 1940s had of crazy paving; the western terrace enclosed by mosquito
It is impossible to pay in money for what is made by heart and soul! admired Mies's work and regarded him as a friend,48 joined in: screens so that one entered the glass pavilion via a wire mesh
Such work one can only recognize and cherish - with love and The International Style ... is totalitarianism. These Bauhaus door; the once-beautiful primavera panels veneered to a
respect. But the concrete world affects us both and I must architects ran from political totalitarianism in Germany to what blackish, reddish colour; the floor space unpleasantly blocked
recognize that also and see that it is dealt with in some decent is now made by specious promotion to seem their own by mostly nondescript furniture; and the sink piled high with
fashion. totalitarianism in art here in America ..."" dishes which had not been washed for several days.
So, dear Mies, I am enclosing a cheque for one thousand [dollars] Edith Farnsworth added her own angry comments, then and A year later the Farnsworth House was sold, and entered
on account, with full awareness of its inadequacy. later, about the general impossibility of living in her exquisite upon a happier phase of existence, as will be related in the
Faithfully yours glass pavilion. She complained that 'Mies talks about his "free Postscript on p.24.
Edith' space", but the space is very fixed. I can't even put a clothes
The romance went wrong, unkind remarks began to be made hanger in my house without considering how it affects Planning
on both sides,43 and in 1953 Mies sued Dr Farnsworth for unpaid everything from the outside'; and that 'I thought you could Before turning to the planning of the Farnsworth House itself,
fees of $28,173. She countersued for $33,872, alleging a large animate a pre-determined, classic form like this with your own that of its immediate predecessors must be considered. The
cost over-run on the original budget, a leaking roof and excessive presence. I wanted to do something meaningful and all I got emphatic horizontal planes, glass-walled transparency and
condensation on the glass walls.44 was this glib, false sophistication.'48 It may of course be that her open interiors which Mies had been perfecting since 1921
After a court hearing that must have been excruciatingly views were coloured by the extremity of her bitterness towards had come together in a sublime synthesis in the Barcelona
painful for both sides, Mies van der Rohe and Edith Farnsworth Mies.49 As Professor Dieter Holm suggested to me in con- Pavilion.51 Having crystallized his ideas in that essentially
in mid-1953 agreed a $14,000 settlement in Mies's favour. versation, had she envisaged her exquisite pavilion as a kind of ceremonial and functionless building, where such experiments
The battle continued outside the courtroom. Many architects Japanese tea house in which she and her friend and mentor in abstraction could be carried out relatively freely, Mies began
also to incorporate them in a sequence of house designs. colours were predominantly neutral and unassertive. The floor surrounded by a brick wall. Within the privacy of these enclosures
The first of these was a grand residence for Fritz and Grete was covered in creamy, off-white linoleum. There was a black each individual house faced its courtyard via a thin-framed,
Tugendhat, which Mies was actually in the process of designing silk curtain before the glass wall by the winter garden; a silvery- ceiling-height glass wall. Interiors consisted of few rooms and
when he was commissioned to undertake the Barcelona grey silk curtain before the main glass wall; the library could be large areas of continuous, fluid space very reminiscent of the
Pavilion. The Tugendhats were enlightened newly-weds who closed off by a white velvet curtain; and a black velvet curtain Brick Country House project; and roofs were lightly supported
wanted a modern house with generous spaces and clear, ran between the onyx wall and the winter garden. This neutral on the external walls plus four to eight slender columns, leaving
simple forms; and who were aware of Mies's work. They backdrop heightened the dramatic effect of a few carefully- the internal partitions free of all load-bearing function. Space
arranged a meeting in 1928 - and like many previous clients devised focal points - the rich black-and-brown ebony curved flowed freely through the interiors and out into the courtyards.
(and his future client Dr Edith Farnsworth) were bowled over by partition; the tawny-gold onyx flat partition; the emerald-green Each walled enclosure was effectively one large 'room', part of
his massive presence and air of calm self-assurance. As Mrs leather, ruby-red velvet, and white vellum furniture claddings; which was indoors and part outdoors - an intermediate stage to
Tugendhat said later: 'From the first moment it was certain that and the lush green jungle of plants filling the winter garden. the Farnsworth House where the entire surrounding meadow
he was our man ... We knew we were in the same room with an After many experimental drawing-board projects Mies was would become an extension of the glass-walled interior.
artist.' That was a common reaction among Mies's clients.52 beginning to realize in built form that 'puritanical vision of In 1937-8, as Mies was in the process of emigrating to
Architect-client relations were not quite as smooth as here simplified, transcendental existence' referred toon p. 13. Chicago, came the immediate forerunner of the Farnsworth
implied, but the project went ahead. The Tugendhat House was This vision had its negative side, and along with the plaudits House. This was a design (alas, unbuilt) for a summer residence
completed in 1930 and represented a decisive step away from the Tugendhat House began to attract comments of a kind for Mr and Mrs Stanley Resor bridging a small river in Wyoming.54
the solid 'block' houses Mies had been building only two years that would recur with the Farnsworth House. Gropius called Very appropriately for-his first American building, the central
earlier (the Esters and Lange houses of 1927-30), and towards it a 'Sunday house', questioning its suitability for everyday 'bridge' section of the house was a long steel-framed box.
the transparent 'pavilion' houses he would be designing in the living, and a critic asked unkindly, 'Can one live in House This was raised slightly clear of the site, formed a glass-walled
future. The living room was extensive and tranquil, enclosed by Tugendhat?' -a question the Tugendhats answered with an living area, and had no internal divisions except for furniture and
glass walls so transparent that the outer landscape and sky impassioned 'yes'.53 a fireplace.
seemed almost to form the room boundaries. The room was There followed the House for a Childless Couple at the Berlin Interestingly, Mies's previous intimate incorporation of
subtly zoned into conversation, dining, study and library areas Fair (1931), which distinctly recalls the Barcelona Pavilion; and houses into their landscapes begins here to give way to a
by only two or three free-standing partitions and a few then a series of unbuilt Courtyard House designs (1931-8) in distinct separation between the man-made object and nature.55
precisely-placed pieces of furniture. It was virtually empty which Mies tested on confined urban sites the concept of open- In the past, the interior spaces (the wings of the house) and
except for these artwork-like items of furniture, and there was plan interiors, sheltering beneath horizontal roof planes and exterior spaces (the gardens and courtyards) were intimately
no allowance for pictures on the walls. looking out on to gardens via glass walls. One-, two- or three- interlocked in projects as late as the Esters and Lange houses.
In another pre-figuration of the Farnsworth House the court houses were planned, the entire site in each case being Here, while the ends of the Resor House - whose foundations
16
31 Dr Edith Farnsworth in early and 33 Draft elevation of Mies's unbuilt
later life Ulrich Lange House, 1935
32 Mies van der Rohe in 1912 (left) 34 Street elevation of his unbuilt House
and mid-1950s with Three Courtyards, 1930s
were inherited by Mies from an earlier design for that site - are drawings were produced, and these show Mies trying out south. The long northern side of the core consists of a single run
firmly rooted to the site, the bridge-like central section parts several alternative positions for the access stairs, the central of cabinets above a kitchen worktop, and the long southern
company with the landscape, hovering aloofly above an core and other minor elements before achieving finality.56 Note, side incorporates a low, open hearth facing the living area. The
untouched site. By a quirk of fate the site problem which for instance, on figure 27, the two glass screens separating the two short sides contain the entrance doors to the bathrooms.
generated this elevated geometry - regular floodwaters - kitchen space from the rest of the house - Mies's last half- The living area is zoned into a sleeping area on the east
would recur with his next house. hearted attempt at traditional boxed-in rooms before going for (thus conforming with the excellent precept, going back to
In 1946, on Dr Farnsworth's plot beside the Fox River, Mies a completely undivided living area.57 Vitruvius's Sixth Book of Architecture, that bedrooms should
could finally bring all these gradually-evolved ideas to their Another abandoned idea was the enclosure of the western face east so that the sleeper wakes to the glory of the morning
ultimate conclusion. terrace by insect-proof screening. The screens were shown sun), a dining area to the west, and a general sitting area
His most fundamental decision involved the relationship on the model exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in 1947, between the two. The sleeping zone is served by a free-
between the building and the landscape - a relationship that but Mies never liked these transparency-destroying elements standing teak-faced cupboard.
aimed at bringing nature, the house and human beings together and the house was built without them. (In fact practicality would Outside, the raised terrace to the west is a splendid place for
into 'a higher unity', as he put it. soon triumph over aesthetics, and the idea had to be resurrected sitting at the end of the day, watching the sunset.
The house stands about 1.6 metres (just over 5 ft) above the after Dr Farnsworth moved into the house, owing to the Turning from internal to external planning, it seems to have
surrounding meadow, leaving the site completely undisturbed tormenting clouds of mosquitoes rising from the riverside been decided that allowing motor vehicles to drive right up to
and giving its occupants a magnificent belvedere from which to meadow every summer. Stainless steel screens were therefore the pavilion (a formative design factor in another twentieth-
contemplate the surrounding woodland. The practical reason designed and installed at her request in 1951. The work was century country villa, Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye of 1929-31)
for the raised floor is that the meadow is a floodplain, but Mies done under Mies's supervision by his design assistant William would impair the Farnsworth House's idyllic sense of seclusion.
has characteristically managed to transmute a technical solution Dunlap, client/architect relations by then being frosty.58 The Therefore Mies's design made no provision for car access.
to an aesthetic masterstroke. Being elevated, the house is screens were removed two decades later by the new owner Dr Farnsworth did subsequently build a conventional two-
detached from disorderly reality and becomes an exalted place Peter Palumbo, and the mosquito-breeding meadow mown car garage beside the gate on the northern boundary of the site,
for contemplation -safe, serene and perfect in all its smooth, down to a more lawn-like surface as will be related later.) where she presumably parked her car and walked across the
machine-made details. The interior as finally realized is a single glass-enclosed field to the house. Her visitors more commonly drove all the way
The basic arrangement of the Farnsworth House was quickly space, unpartitioned except for a central service core. The to the house and parked there. The disturbing presence of
settled, but the precise layout went through the usual painstak- latter conceals two bathrooms (one for Dr Farnsworth, one for garage, track and automobiles inevitably diminished the dream-
ing process of Miesian fine-tuning (his most characteristic visitors) and a utility room, and is set closer to the northern wall like image of a small pavilion in remote woodland and, as
injunction to students and design assistants was, it is said, to than to the southern. This off-centre location creates a narrow outlined on p.25, its next owner radically replanned the site to
'work on it some more'). Literally hundreds of preliminary kitchen space to the north and a much larger living area to the overcome this defect.
The structure refined statement of glass-and-steel architecture Mies ever best be described as a quest for ideal Platonic form.67
The basic structure of Farnsworth House consists of eight produced - the ultimate crystallization of an idea, as Peter Thus, while the American avant-garde constructed their
wide-flange steel stanchions A, to which are welded two sets of Blake has put it- it is worth examining this aspect in detail. steel houses on the practical and economical balloon-frame
fascia channels to form a perimeter frame B at roof level, and a Mies's admiration for the structural clarity of the steel frame principle, with slender steel members spaced fairly closely
similar perimeter frame C at floor level - see figure 40. long predates his arrival in Chicago, and was no doubt motivated together (see for instance Richard Neutra's Lovell 'Health'
Sets of steel cross-girders D and E are welded to the longi- by reasons both aesthetic and practical.61 Aesthetically the steel House of 1927-9 and Charles Eames' Case Study House of
tudinal channels, and pre-cast concrete planks I and N placed frame lent itself to clear structural display, and was 'honest' and 1949), Mies used heavy steel sections, spaced widely apart
upon these to form the roof and floor slabs respectively. The free of rhetoric or historical associations - highly-prized and with no visible cross-bracing to give an unprecedentedly
loading imposed upon C by the floor construction is obviously characteristics to the future-worshipping avant-garde of the open appearance (see especially his Farnsworth House and
greater than that imposed on B by the roof, but for the sake of 1920s. From a practical standpoint the steel frame allowed New National Gallery). For added character he chose for his
visual consistency Mies has made them of equal depth - an open-plan interiors in which walls could be freely disposed,62 stanchions not the commonly-used steel profiles of the time
example of the primacy of 'form' over 'function' to which he and even more importantly it seemed to hold the answer to but a wide-flanged profile notable for its handsome proportions
was in principle opposed,59 but which stubbornly emerges in Mies's dream of traditional construction methods being and precision of form.
almost all his mature work.™ replaced by industrial systems in which all the building parts Mies also departed from standard Chicago practice in his
The steel stanchions stop short of the channel cappings, could be factory-made and then rapidly assembled on-site.63 steel-jointing techniques. Flanged steel sections are popular
making it clear that the roof plane does not rest on the columns His move to Chicago in 1938 brought him to a city with in the construction industry partly for the ease with which they
but merely touches them in passing, thus helping to create the unparalleled expertise in steel construction. Until then he had may be bolted or riveted together. The flanges are easily drilled,
impression alluded to at the start of this essay - that the been able to use the steel frame only in a semi-concealed way;64 holes can take the form of elongated slots to accommodate
horizontal elements appear to be held to their vertical supports but after 1937-8 the nakedly exposed rolled steel beam, slight inaccuracies, and all the basic operations are speedy
by magnetism. uncamouflaged by covering layers of 'architecture' (except and straightforward.
Above the roof slab is a low service module containing water where required by fire-safety codes), would begin to form the Mies used conventional bolted connections in the less visible
tank, boiler, extract fans from the two bathrooms and a flue basis of his most characteristic designs. parts of his structures, but in exposed positions he wished his
from the fireplace. Beneath the floor slab is a cylindrical drum But whereas American builders used the steel frame with elegant steel members to be displayed cleanly, uncluttered by
housing all drainage pipes and incoming water and electrical no-nonsense practicality,65 the European Mies had different bolts, rivets or plates; and here he defied normal practice by
services. priorities. Ignoring his own arguments of fifteen years earlier using more expensive welded joints, preferably concealed and
that 'form is not an end in itself',66 and that the use of materials invisible. If the weld could not be totally hidden he would have
Steelwork should be determined by constructive requirements, he set the steel sections temporarily joined by means of Nelson stud
As the Farnsworth House is probably the most complete and about refining and intellectualizing the steel frame in what may bolts and cleats, apply permanent welding, and then burn off
35, 36 'In autumn the green turns to a 37 'In summerthe great room floats
golden glow... above a green meadow, its visual
boundaries extending to the leafy
screen of deciduous trees encircling
the house, and the high sun
bouncing off the travertine surface
of the covered terrace...'
38,39 'On sunny days the white steel
profiles receive bright articulation
and precise modelling from the sun's
rays; on dull days the diffuse light wil
still pick out the profiles of these
architectural elements,..'
the holding bolts and plug the holes. The steel surfaces would
then be ground smooth to give the appearance of being formed
of a single continuous material without breaks or joints. Finally,
to ensure a smooth and elegant appearance he had the steel
sections grit-blasted to a smooth matt surface, and the entire
assembly primed and given three coats of paint.
The effect of this sequence of operations in the Farnsworth
House was, as Franz Schulze has commented, almost to de-
industrialize the steel frame, taming the mighty product of blast
furnace, rolling mill and electric arc into a silky-surfaced,
seemingly jointless white substance of Platonic perfection.
Other materials
Passing on from the steel-and-glass envelope, the other mate-
rials used in the Farnsworth House are rigorously restricted to
travertine (floors), wood (primavera for the core walls, teak for
the wardrobe) and plaster (ceilings).
The range of colours is equally limited, the better to set off
the few artworks and carefully-chosen items of furniture inside,
and the framed views of nature outside - white columns and
ceiling, off-white floors and curtains, and pale brown wood.
Such sobriety was a long-standing Miesian characteristic. In
1958 he told the architect and critic Christian Norberg-Schulz:
'I hope to make my buildings neutral frames in which man and
artworks can carry on their own lives ... Nature, too, shall have
its own life. We must beware not to disrupt it with the colour of
our houses and interior fittings. Yet we should attempt to bring
nature, houses and human beings together into a higher unity.
Steel frame Roof construction
North elevation
Key to details
scale 1:200
Plan details
scale 1:5
Detail 10 Detail 12
Detail 11 Detail 13
Section details
scale 1:5
Detail 14 Detail 16
Detail 15 Detail 17
Section details
scale 1:5
Detail 19
NOTES
Mies van der Rohe is quoted in many designed and built in 1948-50. A steel frames. and the second of welded steel.
books, especially those by Philip more general influence might 11 'In the Altes Museum [Schinkel] For examples of buildings in
Johnson and Peter Carter (see Select have been Le Corbusier's many has separated the windows which structure truly does
Bibliography). But in the interests stilted 'boxes up in the air', very clearly, he separated the determine form one must go
of consistency I have, wherever whose underlying motive is elements, the columns and the to the very un-Miesian Antoni
possible, sourced such quotations interestingly discussed in Adolf walls and the ceiling, and I think Gaudi, whose organic-looking
to The Artless Word by Fritz Max Vogt's Le Corbusier: the that is still visible in my later Colonia Guell Chapel
Neumeyer, which reproduces and Noble Savage. Cambridge, buildings' - Mies talking to (1898-1914) has inward-leaning
dates Mies's key texts and lectures MA/London: MIT Press, 1998 Graeme Shankland on the BBC columns which follow
with particular clarity. 4 All his working life Mies 'read Third Programme, 1959 (Carter experimentally-derived stress
widely and pondered the basic p. 182). In fact this kind of clarity lines instead of western classical
1 From Henry-Russell Hitchcock questions of human existence was already visible in Mies's Riehl verticality.
and Arthur Drexler, Built in USA: and their implications for House (see Schulze, Mies van 15 In 1952 Mies told students that it
Post-war Architecture. New architecture'. In 1961 hewasstil der Rohe, p.28) and Schinkel's was thanks to Peter Behrens that
York: Simon and Schuster, 1952; insisting that 'only questions into role may have been to confirm he had developed a feeling for
pp.20-1 the essence of things are and enhance a sensibility that 'grand form' and a 'sense of
2 The country villa originates in meaningful...' (Neumeyer p.30) was already present in the the monumental' (Tegethoff
Roman times, but our knowledge 5 Carter p. 174 young Mies. p.26). In 1961 he told Peter
of these is imperfect. Better 6 Ibid. p. 174 12 Mies's view was that architectural Carter that 'Peter Behrens had
known are Palladio's sixteenth- 7 Ford p.263 form should result from the a marvellous feeling for form ...
century dwellings in and around 8 Carter p. 10 nature of the problem to be and it is this feeling for form that
the Veneto, and eighteenth- 9 From'Mies in Berlin', an interview solved, and not from I learned from him ...' (Neumeyer
century derivatives by architects recorded on a gramophone disc preconceived style. He p.352). In 1966 he said in a
such as Colen Campbell and in 1966 and issued by Bauwelt expressed this often, from the recorded interview (n.9) that
Lord Burlington. For a history Archiv, Berlin. A translated 1920s - ' Form is not the goal but 'under Behrens I learned the
from antiquity to Le Corbusier's extract was published under the the result of our work' (Neumeyer grand form.'
Villa Savoye see James S title'Mies Speaks' in the pp.242, 243, 247, 257) - until the 16 Mies was self-confessedly
Ackerman's The Villa, London: Architectural Review, London, 1950s when he still insisted that influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright.
Thames and Hudson, 1990. The Dec 1968, pp.451-2 'architecture has nothing to do He later wrote: Toward the
villa is a peculiarly important 10 When in 1908 Mies joined the with the invention of forms' and beginning of the twentieth
building type because idealized studio of Peter Behrens that 'the invention of forms is century the great revival of
house designs, both built and (1868-1940) it was one of the obviously not the task of the architecture in Europe, instigated
unbuilt, have long been used to most exciting practices in building art' (Neumeyer by William Morris, began to ...
express new architectural Germany, attracting such future pp.324-5). But he was one of the lose force. Distinct signs of
paradigms - see Peter Collins in stars as the young Gropius (in great form-givers of the age, exhaustion became manifest.' By
Changing Ideals in Modern 1907-10) and Le Corbusier (in imposing upon project after 1910, he went on, 'we younger
Architecture, London: Faber, 1910-11). Having been a leading project his own twentieth-century architects found ourselves in
1965, pp.42-58 exponent of Art Nouveau, distillations of the forms of painful inner conflict'. Then there
3 Unlike the villa (from Latin'rural Behrens began in 1903 to search classical architecture, often in came to Berlin an exhibition of
house'), the modest countryside for a design approach less defiance of structural logic. the work of Frank Lloyd Wright.
cabin is not a formal architectural superficial and subjective, and 13 Seen.9 The work of this great master
type. But there are notable arguably more suited to the 14 For early examples of Mies revealed an architectural world of
architect-designed examples, needs of an industrial society. allowing appearance to unexpected force and clarity of
two of which (figs. 2 and 3) This led him to the works of determine structure, rather than language ... The more deeply we
confirm that the framed cabin, Schinkel (1781 -1841) whose vice versa, see the Esters and studied Wright's creations, the
raised on stilts above a watery noble boulevards, squares and Lange houses (1927-30): their greater became our admiration
site, was a known model that buildings were prominent very long window lintels, invisibly for his incomparable talent... The
was classicized and refined features of early twentieth- supported by hidden steel dynamic impulse emanating from
rather than invented by Mies van century Berlin. Behrens' work beams, are exceptionally neat his work invigorated a whole
der Rohe in 1946-51. The first, from about 1905 onwards but contradict the nature of load- generation.' (Neumeyer p.321)
Walter Gropius and Marcel became sober, massive and bearing brickwork. Mies's 17 Avant-garde architectural and
Breuer's H G Chamberlain House powerful, and he had a seminal pavilions in the Bacardi Office artistic movements in Berlin
in Wayland, MA, was built in role in developing the new forms Building project (1957) and New during the time Mies worked
1940 and was probably known of modern architecture. A prime National Gallery (1962-7) are late there included Expressionism
to Mies. The second, Paul example is the proto-modern examples: as Peter Blundell from Germany, De Stijl from the
Rudolph and Ralph Twitchell's AEG Turbine Factory (1909) with Jones has pointed out their Netherlands and Constructivism
Healy Guest House in Florida, its innovative and powerfully forms are virtually identical and Suprematism from Russia.
was almost contemporary with expressive shape, and its glassy despite the fact that the first was There were also vigorously
the Farnsworth House, being side walls and clearly-exhibited meant to be made of concrete propagandist organizations such
as the leftist Novembergruppe Bauten und Entwurfe. They had Republic, and to cast a spell of 'building art is always the spatial Lloyd Wright completed his Mies who, despite protestations
(November Group) of which Mies an immense impact on many tranquillity upon its visitors. It was expression of spiritual decisions' desert home in Arizona a dozen such as those quoted in n.28,
was a member; Die Glaserne European architects, including formally used only once, for an (ibid. p.304); and two years later years ago', the Forum also noted had always shown more
Kette (Glass Chain) of which he Mies (see n. 16). The original opening ceremony when the he expressed a similar sentiment that the house would have 'little enthusiasm for the pursuit of
was not; and publications such portfolio has recently been Commissioner General of the (ibid. p.309). to say to those whose ideal is an architectonic form than for the
as Gestaltung ('Form-giving') republished in reduced facsimile Republic, Georg von Schnitzler, 29 Siegfried Ebeling, a Bauhaus informal setting for family living', radical transformation of society.
which he helped to found and to as Studies and Executed is reported to have said: 'Here member, published in 1926 a or to those 'who seek first to 34 The variety, inventiveness and
which he contributed. For a Buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright, you see the spirit of the new highly mystical (and somewhat express the individual personality warmth of American houses of
summary of these influences see London: Architectural Press, Germany: simplicity and clarity of mystifying) tract entitled Der of a client'. the late 1930s to early 1950s is
Neumeyer pp. 15-27; and for 1986. means and intentions all open to Raum als Membran or 'Space 32 The term 'International Style' was seen in the work of Gregory Ain,
brief descriptions of the 20 In DeStijI design there were'no the wind as well as to freedom ... as Membrane'. Ebeling saw conferred by the American critics Edward Larrabee Barnes, Marcel
movements see The Thames and more closed volumes ... There A work made of honesty, without buildings, and the house Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Breuer, Mario Corbett, Charles
Hudson Encyclopaedia of 20th are six planes: the ceiling, four pride. Here is the peaceful house in particular, as forming a Philip Johnson upon a strand of Eames, Harwell Hamilton Harris,
Century Architecture, London: walls, and the floor. Separate the of an appeased Germany.' (A membrane between man and European modernism that had John Johansen, Richard Neutra,
Thames and Hudson, 1983 joinings, keeping the planes free; contemporary paraphrase of the exterior space, creating an crystallized between 1922 and Igor Polevitzky, Schweikher and
18 It is difficult today to imagine how then light will penetrate even the speech, by Rubio Tuduri, quoted interior that 'could do justice 1932 in a series of buildings by Elting, Paolo Soleri, Raphael
wholly unprecedented and darkest corners of the room, and by Robin Evans, Translations to one's relationship with one's Le Corbusier, Oud, Gropius, Soriano, Ralph STwitchell and
revelatory this project was. The its space will take on a new life ... from Drawing to Building and body, one's being, and the Lurcat, Rietveld and Mies (see Lloyd Wright in Built in USA:
massiveness of traditional Once the planes are separate other Essays, London: eternity of the cosmos'. Many Hitchcock and Johnson, The Post-war Architecture (see n.1
building had suddenly been and independent they can be Architectural Association, 1997, might find these notions (which International Style: Architecture above). A good short history
replaced by an alternative whose separated beyond the perimeter p.236). The pavilion's lack of Ebeling propounds at length and since 1922, New York: WW appears in Jordy pp.165-219.
sheer glass facades gave full of the old box and spread out, specific function is confirmed in in opaque language) overstated, Norton & Co, 1932 and 1966). 35 After virtually disappearing from
expression to Bruno Taut's go up or down, and reach out 'Mies Speaks' (n.9). but Mies was in search of These buildings were typically view during the 1920s, the
exultant cry in the first issue of beyond the limits that used to 25 Mies's admiration of the steel transcendental meanings and white, cubically or horizontally- septuagenarian Frank Lloyd
the Expressionist journal cut off the interior from the skeleton goes back at least as far the underlinings in his copy of composed, strip-windowed or Wright swept back to a dominant
Fruhlichttn 1920: 'High the exterior... Once the box has as 1922, when he wrote of Der Raum suggest that he took occasionally glass-walled, position in American architecture
transparent, the clear! High been dismembered, the planes unclad skyscraper structures these ideas seriously. Ebeling's devoid of ornament, and formed with Fallingwater (1935-9) and
purity! High the crystal!...' no longer form closed volumes ... that 'the impression of the high- ideas are discussed, and their of smooth, thin-looking flat the Johnson Wax administration
(Neumeyer p.3). Alas, in addition Instead the rooms become fluid, reaching steel skeletons is possible influence on Mies's work planes rather than massive walls. building (1936-9).
to a crystalline glassiness and and join up, and flow ...' (Bruno overpowering'. But, he traced, in Neumeyer pp.171-9. Indisputably modern designs of 36 ' Looking closely at the early
structural clarity this design also Zevi in The Modern Language of continued, once the claddings See also n.76 below on Martin somewhat different character Chicago skyscrapers we readily
introduced the banal flat top Architecture, Seattle: University were added 'this impression is Heidegger. were being produced during observe the crudity of most of
that would come to have such of Washington Press, 1978, p.31) completely destroyed; the 30 All the underlying ideas realized those years by architects such as them. Frames and windows
a catastrophic effect on urban 21 The complete absence of doors constructive thought... is in the Farnsworth House are Hugo Haring, but the clinical style are often ill-proportioned.
skylines the world over - see for in the Brick Country House annihilated and frequently present in a few sentences publicized in Hitchcock and The masonry and terra-cotta
comparison the Chicago Tribune project was a literal intention, smothered ...' (Neumeyer p.240) written by Mies in 1933. In praise Johnson's book did seem for a sheathing is often clumsy in
Tower design by Raymond Hood and not just a simplification 26 Mies used the phrase'skin and of the possibilities of steel and while to be the emerging image both its profile and its surface
and John Meade Howells (1924). of draughtsmanship, as Mies bone construction' to describe glass construction he says: 'Only of modern architecture. ornamentation. The juncture of
19 The traditional Japanese interior confirmed: 'I have abandoned the clear separation between now can we articulate space, 33 Though never becoming popular one member or one material with
influenced Western design at the the usual concept of closed the load-bearing skeleton (bone) open it up and connect it to the in American house design, the another is often awkward. There
turn of the century, partly as a rooms and striven for a series and non-load-bearing claddings landscape, thereby satisfying the International Style did dominate are, to be sure, fine buildings
result of the 1893 World's of spatial effects rather than a (skin) so evident in his post-1921 spatial needs of modern man. American office building design among these early Chicago
Columbian Exposition in row of individual rooms.' designs. For his first use of the Simplicity of construction, clarity for four decades, starting with skyscrapers. The majority,
Chicago. The Exposition (Neumeyer p.250) phrase, in 1923, see Neumeyer of tectonic means, and purity of Raymond Hood's McGraw-Hill however, are boldly, vitally,
exhibited a Japanese pavilion 22 The open-plan, glass-walled p.241. material shall be the bearers of a Building (1929-30); Howe and courageously gawky
whose relatively open interior, house emerges in Mies's House 27 Seen.4 new beauty.' (Neumeyer p.314) Lescaze's Philadelphia Saving Jordy pp.225-6
divided by light screens rather for a Childless Couple at the 28 In his early writings, c. 1923, For his 1958 declaration Fund Society Building (1929-32); 37 Including such manifestations of
than walls, came as a revelation 1931 Berlin Building Exposition, Mies appeared to see the core to Norberg-Schulz on the Pietro Belluschi's Equitable Life Western geometric discipline as
to many architects - including the Gericke House project of problem of twentieth-century restrained use of colour in Assurance Building (1944-7); strict adherence to the Cartesian
25-year-old Frank Lloyd Wright. 1932 and the sequence of Court architecture in terms of building interiors see Neumeyer Wallace Harrison's United grid (no hint, yet, of the exploded
This influence is clearly visible in House projects from 1931-8. technology - new materials, pp.338-9. Nations Secretariat Building forms of Frank Gehry etc.), a
Wright's post-1893 house plans These projects are briefly new production methods and 31 Architectural Forum, October (1947-50); and Skidmore concern for proportion and
(see Kevin Nute, Frank Lloyd described in Schulze, Mies van increased efficiency. By 1927 his 1951, pp. 156-62. The review is Owings and Merrill's Lever House regular spacing of vertical
Wright and Japan, London: derRohe and more extensively in language had changed and he highly favourable but balanced: (1951-2). In the USA the elements. These continuities are
Chapman and Hall, 1993, Tegethoff. was giving primacy to spiritual while praising the Farnsworth International Style also lost its particularly apparent in the work
pp.48-72). His designs were 23 Seen. 19 values. Thus in 1927 he viewed House's fine qualities, and European connotations of social of Mies.
published in 1910-11 by the 24 The pavilion functioned only to the housing problem as 'a suggesting that it might be improvement and became simply 38 Buildings by Mies included in The
German publisher Wasmuth symbolize the openness and spiritual problem' (Neumeyer 'the most important house a clean and modern way of International Style (n.32) were his
as a portfolio titled Ausgefuhrte freedom of the 1919-33 Weimar p.258); a year later he wrote that completed in the US since Frank shaping buildings. This suited Apartment Building at the
Weissenhof Siedlung, Stuttgart owner dissatisfaction and threats refined simplicity. The room is 56 Mies's designs appear to have there is an abstract conception of economy, both Mies and the
(1927); German Pavilion at the of litigation over defects. empty except for a few objects been conceived almost at a Wall or Column or Window which Greenes expended time and
Barcelona Exposition (1929); 45 Seen.43 upon which attention will be stroke, and quickly perfected. represents that object in its ideal money to produce one-off
Lange House, Krefeld (1928); 46 Wright, who seldom praised focused - the tea utensils (all Nothing could be further from the form - a form, presumably, of craftworks.
Tugendhat House, Brno (1930); the work of his contemporaries carefully chosen) plus a hanging truth. Mies always evolved his irreducible clarity and simplicity. 72 For the detailing of the Barcelona
and Apartment Study, New York (particularly if they were scroll, a floral arrangement, designs via hundreds of sketches In this spirit one may see the chair and other Miesian furniture
(1930). The Tugendhat House European) admitted that he and/or some other aesthetic and numerous models, testing smooth stone rectangles of see Spaeth pp.76-83. For the
was given especial prominence. admired Mies's Barcetona object. The tea is enjoyed and every conceivable variation of Mies's Barcelona Pavilion as detailing of the Lange House see
39 Mies'slater fame tends to Pavilion and Tugendhat House the chosen matters discussed each idea in a patient search representing the irreducible Ford p.269.
obscure the fact that in 1945 he (Schulze, Mies van der Rohe, in a manner expressing the four for perfection. Usually these essence of Wall, the clean sheets 73 Mies's pursuit of perfect form
was almost unknown outside pp.158 and 210). In 1937he qualities of harmony, respect, sketches have not survived, but of glass as representing the led him on occasion to sacrifice
Germany. In Europe he had built welcomed Mies to Taliesin East cleanliness and tranquillity. for the Resor project (n.54) Mies essence of Window, and so on. function to aesthetics,
(besides exhibitions) only six for an afternoon visit that became Parallels with the secluded, is known to have done several One can understand the appeal particularly in his glass-walled
notable houses, two small a four-day stay (ibid. p.210-11). serene and sparsely-furnished hundred - or perhaps over a of such a quest for distilled, ideal pavilions. Some of his IIT campus
apartment blocks and a The next year he introduced Mies Farnsworth House are obvious. thousand (Tegethoff p. 19). He form to Mies and his generation, buildings are widely known to
memorial monument; in America at a formal dinner with the words: 51 Seen.24 particularly liked sketching and who grew up with buildings and have suffered from solar heat
only one building, the I IT Minerals 'I admire him as an architect, 52 Mrs Tugendhat's encomium is re-sketching the spiral stair furniture whose essential forms gain, heat loss, glare, noise
and Metal Research Building respect and love him as a man ... quoted in Schulze, Mies van der (borrowed from the Tugendhat were sometimes distorted or penetration from outside, noise
(1942-3) with Holabird and Root you treat him well and love him as Rohe, p. 161-73. For an account House), and studying the detail ornamented almost beyond penetration within the building,
as co-architects. His international I do'(ibid, p.219). In 1944 he of the ripples caused by Mies's where the cruciform columns recognition. roof damage, and cracking of
reputation began to take off only began to disagree with Mies, insistence on giving clients what (borrowed from the Barcelona 68 Seen.30 window glass and/or ceiling
in 1947, a decade after his arrival dismissing the letter's design for he thought they ought to want, Pavilion) met floor and ceiling. 69 But not miraculously so, as plaster owing to thermal
in the USA, with publication of the IIT Library and Administration rather than what they actually 57 Schulze, The Farnsworth House implied by Peter Blake when he movement. A study by Skidmore
Philip Johnson's monograph building as 'a new classicism' wanted, see Spaeth pp.68-70. 58 Ibid. writes that the steelwork of the Owings and Merrill in 1974 found
Mies van derRohe. Johnson's (Spaeth p. 132), but he was still For a full monograph on the 59 Seen.12 Farnsworth House is so precisely that Crown Hall (a large clear-
black-and-white images of writing warm personal letters as building see Daniela Hammer- 60 Seen.14 welded that it 'sings like a tuning span pavilion completed in 1956
Mies's clean planar compositions late as October 1947. (Schulze, Tugendhat and Wolf Tegethoff, 61 Seen.25 fork when it is lightly tapped' to house the NT's departments of
came to many as a revelation of Mies van derRohe, pp.237-8) Ludwig Mies van derRohe: The 62 Neumeyer p.259 (Blake p.84). This pleasing Architecture, City Planning and
what a truly modern architecture 47 Seen.43 Tugendhat House, Vienna/New 63 Ibid, pp.248-9 notion, repeated by Neil Jackson Design) needed a one million-
could look like. Mies by this time 48 Schulze, The Farnsworth House York: Springer (published after 64 The steel skeleton with masonry (The Modem Steel House, dollar restoration programme,
was over sixty. 49 After the breakdown in their the present text was written). infill was well-known in London: Spon Press, 1996, including $100,000 for a new
40 See The Farnsworth House, relations, Edith Farnsworth 53 Justus Bier's essay 'Kann Man nineteenth-century Germany, p.66) and Richard Weston (The roofing system. In 1999
1997, written by Franz Schulze (a described Mies as 'simply colder im Haus Tugendhat wohnen?' ultimately deriving from half- House in the Twentieth Century, Fujikawa, Johnson and
respected Miesian authority) and and more cruel than anyone I ('Can one live in the Tugendhat timbering (Tegethoff p. 101); London, Laurence King, 2002, Associates (see n.89) were
produced by Dirk Lohan, Mies's have ever known' - a description House?') was published in Die and Mies first used this form of p.155), is, alas, a romantic fiction. retained to restore Crown Hall.
grandson and associate in not recognized by those Form, 6,1931, pp.392 efseq, concealed construction in the The welded steel structure may 74 Mies's willingness to subordinate
practice until Mies's death in who remember the genial, if quoted in Neumeyer p.xv; Fritz Weissenhof Apartment Building. possibly have possessed the the likes and dislikes of individual
1969. This booklet is more recent somewhat taciturn, Mies; while and Grete Tugendhat's emphatic The Tugendhat House and Resor resonance of a tuning fork before clients to 'universal' values is
than most of the standard his own version was that 'the 'yes' is fully quoted in Tegethoff House are hybrids, with some being loaded with massive floor evident from his designs and
references, and where different lady expected the architect pp.97-8. steel columns hidden in walls and roof slabs, but it certainly has writings. The Roman and
sources give different accounts to go along with the house' 54 The story of the Resor House is but others standing clear as first not sung since. medieval buildings he most
of events I have assumed it to be - a comment unworthy of this told briefly in Schulze, Mies van seen in the temporary Barcelona 70 Architectural Forum, Oct 1951, admired were described by him
the most reliable. normally gallant man. The truth derRohe, pp.209-13 and Pavilion. In the Farnsworth pp. 156-62 as 'totally impersonal' (Neumeyer
41 Seen.24 may be that a somewhat lonely Tegethoff pp. 127-9, and in detail House the steel frame finally 71 For a discussion of the p.245). Of his own work he said
42 Schulze, The Farnsworth House woman was yearning for a friend, in Lambert, pp. 160-80. reigns supreme and nothing is contrasting detailing techniques in the 1920s that 'questions of
43 Extracts from the House while her architect wanted only 55 The desire to differentiate hidden. of the classically-inspired a general nature are of central
Beautiful article and subsequent to build a noble building, and that between the man-made building 65 Seen.36 Mies (who strove for idealized interest. The individual becomes
polemic may be found in each preferred not to recognize and the natural landscape has 66 Seen. 12 perfection), and the arts-and- less and less important; his fate
Schulze, The Farnsworth House, the true motives of the other characterized much modern 67 Platonic doctrine holds that crafts-influenced Greenes (who no longer interests us.' (ibid,
p. 19 and Schulze, Mies van der (see Schulze, Mies van der design. Atypical quotation is while we see around us many strove for rude honesty) see Ford p.246). His later buildings
Ftohe, p.259. Rohe, p.253). from the Bauhausian architect individual men, we must have an pp.123-60 and 261-87. While tend similarly to ignore the
44 It is interesting and perhaps 50 The tea ceremony is a traditional and furniture designer Marcel abstract conception of Man to the detailing philosophies of particularities of site, climate or
significant that Le Corbusier's Japanese way of entertaining Breuer (1902-81): 'A building is enable us to describe so many these designers are in the above orientation. In the 1960s he told
Villa Savoye, which vies with the guests, based on the adoration a man-made work, a crystallic, different objects by the same sense polar opposites, there is of Peter Carter, 1 am in fact
Farnsworth House for the title of of the beautiful. A few friends constructed thing. It should not name. And the same for all other course another sense in which completely opposed to the idea
'second most famous villa of meet in the host's tea house, imitate nature - it should be in sensible objects. Architects of they are akin: unlike industrial that a specific building should
modern architecture' (Frank typically a self-contained contrast with nature.' Marcel Platonic disposition might design, in which standard have an individual character...
Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater being structure designed to give a Breuer, Sun and Shadow, New therefore argue that behind all components are connected by it should express a universal
first), also generated serious sense of seclusion and rustic yet York: Dodd Mead, 1955, p.380. walls or columns or windows standard means for speed and character.' (Carter p.61)
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
75 Seen.29 Components and joints are viable for family houses too. But Twentieth Century (n.69 above). The best solution is to place all This short list is not comprehensive
76 In August 1951 the German nakedly displayed as in a Greek he did recognize the critical 88 During the 1970s Dr Edith insulation above the waterproof but identifies a number of core
philosopher Martin Heidegger temple - a design approach importance of size for open-plan Farnsworth retired from practice membrane (the so-called references. Extensive bibliographies
(1889-1976) presented an that is very unforgiving of houses. In the same interview he and moved to a villa near 'inverted roof) and not below it. will be found in Schulze, Spaeth and
important paper titled Bauen, imperfections. told Shankland that if he were Florence in Italy. She died in 1977 92 Schulze, The Farnsworth House Tegethoff below.
Wohnen, Denken ('Building, 80 For Mies's self-proclaimed designing for himself, 'I would 93 The new approach route to
Dwelling, Thinking') at a commitment to rational build a simple but very large 89 Dirk Lohan is the son of Farnsworth House happily recalls Blake, Peter, Mies van derRohe,
symposium on Man and Space in problem-solving and industrial house, so that I can do inside Professor Wolfgang Lohan and a strategy of 'gradual revelation' London: Penguin Books, 1963
Darmstadt. Heidegger suggests materials/methods see what I like.' Similarly in 'Mies in Mies van der Rohe's daughter Mies van der Rohe used at both Carter, Peter, Mes van derRohe at
that modern man no longer numerous statements from 1922 Berlin', an interview recorded on Marianne. He joined Mies's the Barcelona Pavilion and Work, London: Phaidon Press, 1999
knows the full meaning of the onwards quoted in Neumeyer a gramophone disc in 1966 and practice in 1962, soon after Tugendhat House. In both cases De Sola-Morales, Cirici, and
act of 'dwelling', and sets pp.240-63. For his desire to issued by Bauwelt Archiv, Berlin, graduation, and became his the interior is reached only after Ramos, Mies van der Rohe - the
out to trace the meaning of develop a limited number of Mies recalls telling Hugo Haring: grandfather's most trusted visitors have walked the length of Barcelona Pavilion, Barcelona:
this experience to its deepest reproducible 'type forms' that 'Make your rooms large, Hugo, assistant. After Mies's death the the building, then made a right- Gustavo Gili, 1993
existential roots. As with Ebeling could be adapted to many then you can use them however practice passed to his associates angle turn on to a raised terrace, Ford, Edward R, The Details of
(n.29), his essay is not an easy situations, thus helping to bring you like.' Conterato, Fujikawa and Lohan. followed by another right-angled Modern Architecture, Cambridge,
read and remains unavailable in order to the visual chaos of 85 'What Wright and his successors This firm was commissioned to turn into the building - see figures MA/London: MIT Press, 1990. See
English; but some idea of his twentieth-century cities, see ... failed to realize was that the carry out the restoration of the 49 and 50. In later life the especially ch.9, 'Ludwig Mies van der
approach to architecture may be Carter pp.37-110. On p.7 Carter "open plan" as developed in Farnsworth House in 1972, with increasingly stern Mies Rohe and the Steel Frame',
found in the writings of Christian quotes Mies as saying 'I have Japan depended for its success Dirk Lohan personally in charge. abandoned such theatrical pp.261-87
Norberg-Schulz - eg Existence, tried to make an architecture for entirely on one or both of two After the 1996 flood Dirk Lohan, effects for extreme directness. Johnson, Philip, Mies van der
Space and Architecture (London: a technological society. I have factors: the availability of cheap now in practice as Lohan The approach routes to both his Rohe, 3rd edition, London: Seeker
Studio Vista, 1971) and Genius wanted to keep everything servants and/or the availability of Associates, was again Seagram Building (1957-9) and & Warburg, 1978
Loci (London: Academy Editions, reasonable and clear - to have enslaved wives ... who kept the commissioned to undertake New National Gallery (1962-8) Jordy, William H.American
1980). I am indebted to Professor an architecture that anybody can pristine spaces in immaculate the necessary repairs. are frontal and arrow-straight. Buildings and their Architects, vol.4,
Dieter Holm for a translation of do.' Mies's aversion to novel and order by stashing away all the 90 This account is taken largely from 94 Seen.89 New York: Anchor Books, 1976. See
the essay and for the suggestion individualistic building forms messy appurtenances that might Schulze, The Farnsworth House, especiallych.IV, The Laconic
that the 'act of dwelling' (in shines forth from many other offend the eyes of her husband with additional detail supplied by Splendour of the Metal Frame:
Heidegger's sense of humankind statements - see for instance or his male visitors.' For further Lord Palumbo in letters to the Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's 860
making itself at home in the Neumeyer pp.324, 325, 332, savage comments on the present author. Lake Shore Apartments and his
world, and at one with the world) 336, 338. impracticalities of the open plan 91 Flat roofs are risk-prone in cold- Seagram Building', pp.221-77
is possibly more powerfully 81 Blake pp.9, 10 see pp.31 -6 of Peter Blake's winter climates if the building is Lambert, Phyllis, Mies in America,
satisfied by the conjunction of 82 Seen.73 Form Follows Fiasco: Why heated and insulated, and if the New York: Harry N Abrams, 2001
man, architecture and nature in 83 With regard to the 50 ft by 50 ft modern architecture hasn 't roof insulation is located beneath Lohan, Dirk, Farnsworth House,
the Farnsworth House than by House (which could also be worked, Boston/Toronto, Little the waterproof membrane (as Piano, Illinois, 1945-50, Global
almost any other twentieth- made 40 ft or 60 ft square to suit Brown and Company, 1977. was standard practice until Architecture Detail, Tokyo: ADA
century dwelling. the client's needs), Schulze, Mies 86 Karl Freund, a craftsman who recently). In winter moisture- Edita, 1976
77 Schulze, The Farnsworth House van derRohe, p.261 refers to an worked on the Farnsworth laden warm air may rise through Neumeyer, Fritz, The Artless Word,
78 Ibid. undated clipping from the House, was subpoenaed to the ceiling, filter through the Cambridge, MA/London: MIT Press,
79 Most traditional building Chicago Tribune, held in the Mies give evidence in the court insulation layer and be trapped 1991
construction is 'layered', each van der Rohe Archive at the case between Mies and Edith against the cold underside of the Schulze, Franz, Mies van derRohe:
layer masking imperfections in Museum of Modern Art in New Farnsworth but refused to testify waterproof membrane. The latter A Critical Biography, Chicago/
the one beneath. Thus a rough York, which quotes Mies as against either. He later said, will chill the moisture-laden air, London: University of Chicago Press,
wall may be covered by a layer of saying: 'Since there seems to be They are equally guilty of making possibly to below dew-point 1985
plaster, which in turn is covered a real need for such homes we a thing without a solid contract... temperature, in which case Schulze, Franz, The Farnsworth
by a layer of paper and/or paint. have attempted to solve the She didn't understand the house. the air/vapour mixture trapped House, 1997. A 32-page illustrated
Similarly, rough timber framing problem by developing a steel Mies should have made much beneath will condense into booklet available to visitors to the
is covered by more accurately skeleton and a core that could be clearer to her what she was droplets of water. These may Farnsworth House
machined joinery, and all joints used for all houses ... The interior getting. It is a beautiful museum then soak into the insulation Spaeth, David, Mes van derRohe,
are then masked by mouldings. is left open for flexibility.' piece, but she didn't like to layer, reducing its insulating London: The Architectural Press,
In addition to being visually 84 In an interview on the BBC Third live in it.' David Spaeth, The properties, encouraging mould 1985
expressive, traditional cornices, Programme in 1959 Mies told Farnsworth House Revisited', growth and staining the ceiling Tegethoff, Wolf, Mes van derRohe:
skirtings, jambs, architraves and Graeme Shankland, 1 would not Fine Homebuilding, Apr/May below. Fixing a vapour-proof The Villas and Country Houses,
beads therefore perform the vital like to live in a cubical house 1988, p.37. Quoted on p.67 of barrier beneath the insulation Cambridge, MA/London: MIT Press,
function of masking rough edges, with a lot of small rooms. I would The Modern Steel House (n.69 (as was done in the Farnsworth 1985
cracks and structural movement rather live on a bench in Hyde above). House in 1972) will avoid the
in the fabric beneath. Mies's Park' (Carterp.181); and the last 87 For the Tallon House, Villa problem, but only if this barrier
post-1930 buildings almost sentence in n.83 suggests that Maesen and Skywood House remains totally vapour-proof
completely avoid such layering. he believed the open plan to be see pp.23-9 of The House in the which is difficult to guarantee.
DIMENSIONS MATERIALS FARNSWORTH HOUSE KEY DATES IN THE LIFE OF MIES VAN DER ROHE
(before renovation) CHRONOLOGY
Imperial Metric Structure Wide-flange rolled steel 1945 1971 3 March 1886 1937-8
Overall length joists Mies van der Rohe meets Dr Edith Dr Farnsworth sells the house to Mr Born in Aachen, Germany Emigrates to the USA
77 ft 3 in 23.546m Wall framing Flat steel bars welded Farnsworth Peter (later Lord) Palumbo
Internal width together 1904 1938-59
28 ft 8 in 8.738m Wall glazing 1/4 in (6.4mm) 1945 1972 Moves to Berlin Director of Architecture at the Armour
Internal height polished plate glass Dr Farnsworth commissions Mies Mr Palumbo employs Mr Dirk Lohan Institute of Technology in Chicago
9 ft 6 in 2.896m Door framing Kawneer narrow stile to design a weekend retreat at the to renovate the house 1905-7 (later to become the Illinois Institute
Internal floor area aluminium Fox River, near Piano, 60 miles west Holds series of positions in private of Technology)
2,215 sq ft 205.83 sqm Door glazing 1/4 in (6.4mm) of Chicago 1977 architectural practice in Berlin
Deck length polished plate glass Dr Farnsworth dies at the age of 1938-69
55ft 16.764m Floor and deck 1 1/4 in (31.8mm) 1946 74 in Italy, where she has lived for 1908-11 In private architectural practice
Deck width thick travertine slabs laid with + The basic design of the Farnsworth some years Works in Berlin studio of Peter in Chicago
22ft 6.706m 1/16 in (1.6mm) joints House is fixed Behrens
Deck area Roof finish Gravel bedded in pitch 1996 1946-51
1,210sqft 112.42sqm on 6 layers of roof felting on 2in 1949 The Fox River rises 1.5m above 1911-14 Designs and oversees construction
Floor level above ground (51 mm) foam glass slabs bedded Dr Farnsworth receives an internal floor level, breaking the glass In private architectural practice of the Farnsworth House
±5ft +1.5m in asphalt on 1 ply vapour seal inheritance which enables walls and causing severe internal in Berlin
Deck level above ground membrane with two moppings of construction to begin damage. Lord Palumbo employs Dirh 17 August 1969
±2ft ±0.6m pitch Lohan to renovate the house 1914-18 Dies in Chicago
Stanchion spacing along length Ceiling Plaster on metal lath 1951 Military service
of house Core unit Primavera-faced plywood The house is completed 1997
22ft 6.706m panels on timber framing The Fox river rises 0.3 m above 1919-37
Floor & roof cantilevers beyond Storage cabinet Teak-faced 1951 internal floor level, causing minor In private architectural practice
end stanchions plywood panels on timber framing Mies sues Dr Farnsworth for un- damage in Berlin
5 ft 7 in 1.702m
paid fees. Dr Farnsworth counter-sues, alleging a cost over-run and
Floor module 1997 1921
Length design faults Lord Palumbo opens the restored Co-founder of G (Gestaltung
2 ft 9 in 838 mm house to the public magazine) in Berlin
Width 1953
2ft 610mm The lawsuit is settled in Mies's favour 1921-5
Entrance door offset Director of Architectural Exhibits,
1 ft 305 mm 1953 November Group, Berlin
Core unit length An article titled The Threat to the
24 ft 6 in 7.468m Next America, an attack on the 1925
Core unit width Farnsworth House and on Mies van Founder, ZehnerRing, Berlin
12ft 3.658m der Rohe, is published in the
Core unit height American magazine House Beautiful 1926-32
7 ft 6 in 2.286m First vice-president, Deutscher
Storage cabinet length 1954 Werkbund, Berlin
12ft 3.658m The Fox River rises 1.2m above
Storage cabinet depth internal floor level, damaging finishes 1927
2 f t 2 in 0.660m and furnishings Director of the Weissenhofsiedlung,
Storage cabinet height Stuttgart
6ft 1.829m 1967
Kitchen area width Kendall County compulsorily 1930-2
4f 1.20m purchases part of Dr Farnsworth's Director of the Bauhaus at Dessau
Sitting area width property, widens and raises the road
12ft 3.70m along the western boundary of the 1931
Dining area width site, and moves the road closer to Director of the Werkbund section
17ft 5.20m the house The Dwelling at the Berlin Building
Sleeping area width Exhibition
12ft 3.70m 1968
Steelwork Dr Farnsworth advertises the house 1932-3
Fascia height for sale Director of the Bauhaus in Berlin
15 in 381 mm
Stanchion size 1968 1933
8 in square 203 mm square Mies van der Rohe dies The Bauhaus closes