Mies is the definitive monograph on Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, mapping the full arc of his career across houses, skyscrapers, museums, and campuses through more than 700 drawings, photographs, plans, and diagrams.
About This Book
The apparent simplicity of Mies van der Rohe's architecture has long invited misreading — his work reduced to a slogan, its intellectual depth overlooked. Detlef Mertins corrects this. Moving through each major building and project in depth, Mertins reconstructs the aesthetic and intellectual frameworks that shaped Mies's practice: philosophy, science, and a sustained engagement with the nature of structure and space. The result is a monograph that treats architectural history as the history of ideas, making clear why Mies van der Rohe remains one of the most consequential figures in twentieth-century architecture. Essential reading for architects, historians, and students of modernism.
Key Features
- 544 pages of scholarly text alongside drawings, photographs, plans, and diagrams
- Text by Detlef Mertins
- More than 700 illustrations including drawings, photographs, plans, and diagrams
- Published by Phaidon, ISBN 9781838668174
What You'll Discover
- How Mies van der Rohe's engagement with philosophy and science shaped the formal and spatial logic of his buildings
- In-depth analysis of his most significant buildings and projects, from private houses to large-scale institutional campuses
- The intellectual contexts behind the apparent clarity and restraint of his architectural language
- A comprehensive visual record of his work through plans, sections, drawings, and photography
About the Author
Detlef Mertins was an architectural historian and theorist whose scholarship focused on modernism and its intellectual origins. His text on Mies is noted for its rigour and accessibility, bridging close architectural analysis with broader cultural and philosophical history.
Specifications
- Format: Hardcover
- Pages: 544
- Dimensions: 30.5 × 23.8 cm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9781838668174
- Publisher: Phaidon
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Architects and designers with a serious interest in modernism, architectural historians, academics teaching twentieth-century design history, and students seeking a comprehensive critical account of Mies van der Rohe's work.