RIHA Journal (May 2018)

Mies van der Rohe, der Werkbund und die Frage der Technik um 1930

  • Freigang, Christian

Journal volume & issue
no. 0186

Abstract

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This paper examines the ways Mies van der Rohe has dealt with the phenomenon of mechanization of all areas of human life, that ever since the mid-twenties was becoming an increasingly controversial political issue. Building on a number of philosophical essays on the role of modern large-scale technology, especially those by Friedrich Dessauer, Mies advanced a strategy that can be described as the aesthetic transcendence of industrially-produced technical items. By positioning his architecture in this manner, he warded off all accusations of purely economically-motivated rationalism. What Mies considered to be a “spiritual” approach to architecture has also defined the program of the Werkbund that he presided at that time and has laid the foundation for his postwar work.

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