| Title |
A Study on the Design Strategies of Mies van der Rohe's Early Houses |
| Authors |
Nam Kyoung-Hoon ; Lee Kang-Up |
| Keywords |
Mies van der Rohe ; House ; 19th Century ; Style ; Historicism ; Modern Architecture |
| Abstract |
Mies van der Rohe's works before 1920 have been inactively argued in comparison with his modernist works after 1920 and understood merely as the Schinkelisque neoclassic works which had influence on his overall classic taste. Thus, this study aims at understanding the design strategies of Mies's early works to redefine the architectural characteristics of his early career, especially focused on the stylistic aspects of his housing works. To achieve this purpose, the 19th century German historicism and architectural stylistic progress were investigated, and the four houses which had been actually constructed before 1920 were analyzed. The results are as follows : (1) The stylistic elements Mies used were not the past-referential but the reflections on the historicist agendas of the conservative architectural institutions and clients. (2) In those days he had his own modern agenda which conflicted with their agendas, so he expressed this dilemma by dual design strategies based on the historicist duality of individuality and community, and the 19th century German architectural duality of classic style and medieval style. (3) According to the analyses of the early houses, these strategies were identified as the use of contrastive stylistic motifs, the asymmetric balance, the confrontation of human and natural areas, and the duality of cubic block and skeleton frame. |