Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Swiss-born French architect. Le Corbusier and Ludwig M ies van der R ohe are almost exact contemporaries, and the architecture of Le Corbusier and that of Mies follow closely related paths to meet at a very similar stylistic point at almost exactly the same time. Both Le Corbusier's Villa Savoie, Poissey, 1929–31, and Mies's German Pavilion for the International Exposition, Barcelona, 1929, have become indispensable examples of the design and aesthetic which emphasizes technical perfection and which has come to be called the I nternational style . After this momentary meeting in the history of architecture, their work moves on in contrary directions to arrive in the 1950s in very different places. Mies's Seagram Building, New York, 1958, shares the same concerns with precise proportioning and the subtle play of color and texture as his Pavilion, but Le Corbusier's Notre Dame du Haut, Ronchamp, 1950–5, with its thick and rough textured walls, irregular size and placement of openings, the Brancusiesque roof, seems very unlike his Villa. Seeing the architectural distance that comes to separate Mies's corporate office tower from Le Corbusier's chapel, and then looking back on the Villa Savoie and the German Pavilion, the two separate directions Mies's and Le Corbusier's work will take after 1930 appear to be already charted. Mies's impeccable Pavilion seems turned inward to be found ... log in or subscribe to read full text