Ornament is Crime: Modernist Architecture

An unprecedented homage to modernist architecture from the 1920s up to the present day

Ornament Is Crime is a celebration and a thought-provoking reappraisal of modernist architecture. 

The book proposes that modernism need no longer be confined by traditional definitions, and can be seen in both the iconic works of the modernist canon by Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, and Walter Gropius, as well as in the work of some of the best contemporary architects of the twenty-first century. 

This book is a visual manifesto and a celebration of the most important architectural movement in modern history.

  Ornament is Crime: Modernist Architecture

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Ornament is Crime journeys between the decades to liberate Modernism from its traditional definitions and proposes its continuing presence in the in the work of 21st century architects... [With] elegant spreads and striking examples... An intriguing manifesto... The use of quotes from cultural figures as diverse as Leonard Cohen and Kazimir Malevich here reframes Modernism as a timeless dialogue."—Aesthetica

"A gorgeous collection of black-and-white photographs of homes by modern masters and contemporary architects."—Curbed

"Beautifully illustrated throughout, this thought-provoking compendium invites you to discover modernism's journey from the 1920s to the present day... Inspiring... Ornament is Crime is also interspersed with classic song lyrics, literary excerpts and insightful quotes [...] adding depth and context to the featured images."—CreativeBoom.com

Ornament is Crime: Modernist Architecture

Product details

Hardcover: 224 pages
Publisher: Phaidon Press (June 19, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0714874167
ISBN-13: 978-0714874166
Product Dimensions: 10 x 1 x 11.5 inches

Mies Van Der Rohe

Architecture Book Description

Unprecedented in scope and illustrated with more than 700 original drawings, plans, diagrams, and contemporary and archival photographs, Mies by Detlef Mertins is the most definitive monograph ever published on the modern master of architecture Mies van der Rohe. Mertins’ rich and highly readable text traces the aesthetic and intellectual context for all Mies’ work, with in–depth discussions of his most important projects. 

Featuring some of the twentieth century’s most iconic buildings, such as the Barcelona Pavilion in Spain, the Crown Hall at IIT, and the Seagram Building in New York, Mies paints a fascinating portrait of the famed architect whose contribution to the modern urban landscape cannot be overlooked.

Mies Van Der Rohe

Product Details

Hardcover: 560 pages
Publisher: Phaidon Press (March 10, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0714839620
ISBN-13: 978-0714839622
Product Dimensions: 12.3 x 9.8 x 1.9 inches

Mies and Modern Living

Architecture Book Description

In 1929 Barcelona was host to the World Arts Fair, an international architecture and design exposition attended by members of the Spanish royalty and many senior European government officials.

 It was an occasion for cultural grandstanding, an opportunity for countries to parade their native talent. So when the German government approached Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) to design a pavilion, he was left in no doubt as to their expectations--and he met them, erecting an ultra-modern creation in glass, steel and four types of marble. 


Once he had accomplished this, Mies then set about designing furniture for his building--something none of his competitors appear to have thought of. Thus was born the iconic Barcelona chair, an ingenious blend of clean Modernist steel tubing and comfort-appeal cushioning. 

Gathering the proceedings of a 2007 symposium on van der Rohe, this publication takes the Barcelona chair as a starting point to address his progressive ideas on interior space and continuities between architecture and furniture design. Experts trace the highlights of Mies' career and flesh out a context for his innovations in the ferment of 1920s and 1930s Berlin. Also included is a series of previously unpublished photographs of Mies' work. 
Author of the proto-Minimalist aphorism, "less is more," Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is not only one of the twentieth century's greatest architects, but the creator of numerous milestones in the history of design.

Mies and Modern Living

Product Details

Hardcover: 288 pages

Publisher: Hatje Cantz; First Edition edition (February 1, 2009)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 3775722211

ISBN-13: 978-3775722216

Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 1.1 x 11 inches

The Tugendhat House: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Architecture Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2013

The Tugendhat House in Brno (Czech Republic) was named by UNESCO in 2001 as one of the most important buildings of modern architecture and as a World Heritage Site. Mies van der Rohe designed and built it in 1928-1930 and it is beyond any doubt one of the pinnacles in his career. Based on the monograph of 1998 (in English: 2000) the authors describe the complex aspects of this house: personal, historical, art historical, architecture theoretical and restoration scientific ones. 



Most recent additions include personal reminiscences, photography experiments by Fritz Tugendhat and previously unpublished footage from the family mansion, the house's history after 1997, the conservation of scientifically important materiality of the house and comments on the methodology and techniques of restoration in 2010-2012.

The Tugendhat House: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

New edition of the standard book on Mies van der Rohe's most famous one-family house of Modernism

About the Author

Daniela Hammer Tugendhat. Born 1946 in Caracas/Venezuela. Studied art history and archaeology in Bern and Vienna. Doctoral Thesis on Hieronymus Bosch and the pictorial tradition, habilitation thesis on Studies of the History of Gender Relations in Art. Professor of art history at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and university lecturer at the Institute of Art History, University of Vienna, Austria. Field of research: early modern painting.

Ivo Hammer. Born 1944. Trained as conservator/restorer; studied art history and archaeology in Freiburg and Vienna. Doctoral dissertation on realism in the early 15th century. Head of mural painting conservation in the Austrian Federal Office for the Protection of Monuments and Sites from 1976 1997; conservation projects include: Beethoven Frieze, Gustav Klimt (1902), Lambach Romanesque murals (about 1080) and Salzburg Nonnberg (about 1150), the Hohensalzburg fortress facades (15th 16th century). Since 1997 professor of wall painting/architectural surface conservation/restoration at the Fachhochschule (University of Applied Sciences and Arts) Hildesheim/Holzminden, Germany.

Wolf Tegethoff. Born 1953. Studied art history, town planning, constituti8onal, social and economic history in Bonn and at Columbia University in New York. Doctoral thesis in 1981 on the villas and country house projects of Mies van der Rohe. Assistant professor at the Institute of Art History, University of Kiel, Germany, from 1981 to 1987. Vice Director, since 1991, Director of the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte in Munich with guest lectureships at the Universities of Bonn, Haifa, Innsbruck, Munich, Regensburg and Venice. Numerous publications on the work of Mies van der Rohe including, among others, Mies van der Rohe: The Villas and Country Houses (1984, German edn. 1981).

Product Details

Hardcover: 254 pages

Publisher: Springer Vienna Architecture (February 1, 2013)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 370911294X

ISBN-13: 978-3709112946

Building Seagram

Architecture Book Description

Publication Date: April 28, 2013

The Seagram Building rises up over New York’s Park Avenue with perfect lines of bronze and glass. Considered one of the greatest icons of 20th-century architecture, the building was commissioned by Samuel Bronfman, founder of the Canadian distillery dynasty Seagram. Bronfman’s daughter, Phyllis Lambert, was twenty-seven years old when she took over the search for an architect and chose Mies van der Rohe (1886–1969), a pioneering master of modern “skin and bones” architecture. 



Mies, who designed the building clad in bronze and amber-tinted glass along with Philip Johnson (1906–2005), emphasized the beauty of structure and fine materials and set the building back from the avenue, creating the building’s plaza as an urban oasis. Lambert’s choice established her role as a leading architectural patron and singlehandedly changed the face of American urban architecture.

Building Seagram is a comprehensive personal and scholarly history of the Seagram Building and its architectural, cultural, and urban legacies. Lambert makes use of previously unpublished personal archives, company correspondence, and photographs to tell an insider’s view of the debates, resolutions, and unknown dramas of the building’s construction, as well as its crucial role in the history of modern art and architectural patronage.

Building Seagram

Architecture Book Description

A comprehensive personal and scholarly history of one of the 20th century’s most influential buildings, as told by the woman whose involvement and vision helped change the face of American urban architecture.

About the Author

Phyllis Lambert is founding director of the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal. A licensed architect, she has contributed essays to numerous books and is the subject of the 2007 documentary film Citizen Lambert: Joan of Architecture. Barry Bergdoll is professor of architectural history in the department of art history and archaeology at Columbia University and the Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Product Details

Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Yale University Press (April 28, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0300167679

ISBN-13: 978-0300167672

Mies van der Rohe 2013 Monograph

Architecture Book Description

Release Date: June 5, 2013 | ISBN-10: 0714839620 | ISBN-13: 978-0714839622

Mies is the most beautiful and extensive monograph on one of the most important architects of all time, Mies van der Rohe. 

This is a must-have, landmark book, the result of a lifetime's passion by writer Detlef Mertins.

Mies

About the Author

Detlef Mertins (1954 - 2011) made lasting contributions to the theory and history of modernism in architecture, art, philosophy, and urbanism. From 2002 to 2007, he was Professor of Architecture and Chair of the Department of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. He also taught at the University of Toronto and, as a visiting professor, at Columbia University, Harvard University, Princeton University and Rice University. Among his many published books are Modernity Unbound (2011); G: An Avant-Garde Journal of Art, Architecture, Design, and Film, 1923 - 1926 (2010), co-edited with Michael Jennings; The Presence of Mies (1994) and Metropolitan Mutations: The Architecture of Emerging Public Spaces (1989). Mertins also published numerous essays in scholarly journals and anthologies, as well as critical writings on contemporary architecture.

Product Details

Hardcover: 560 pages
Publisher: Phaidon Press (June 5, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0714839620
ISBN-13: 978-0714839622

Mies van der Rohe: A Critical Biography, a Revised Edition

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

A biography of the man and his ideas, with secondary emphasis on the build ings. Schulze (Art, Lake Forest Col lege) has had the full cooperation of the Mies Archives at the Museum of Mod ern Art and has done extensive re search and interviews with Mies's con temporaries, students, and intimates.






The picture of Mies which emerges is honest and detailed, fair and balanced. Coupled with David Spaeth's Mies van der Rohe ( LJ 5/1/85), which is more de tailed on Mies's architecture, Schulze's book gives a picture in the round. It is well written and flows smoothly, with particularly good attention to Mies's youth in Aachen and the background of Weimar culture. Occasionally one misses illustrations which the narrative implies, but this is still an excellent book. Recommended. Jack Perry Brown, Art Inst. of Chicago Libs. Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Mies van der Rohe: A Critical Biography, a Revised Edition

Product Details

• Hardcover: 568 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (September 15, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226756009
• ISBN-13: 978-0226756004

Mies van der Rohe: A Critical Biography

Mies van der Rohe

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 1995 | ISBN-10: 0226740609 | ISBN-13: 978-0226740607
Franz Schulze's acclaimed biography is a captivating story of the life, designs, and ideas that made Mies van der Rohe one of the world's most celebrated modern architects.

"The most comprehensive book ever written about the master designer and, by any measure, the best....This is a genuinely readable book....Because no writer has ever before probed into Mies's life at such depth, we have here the first definitive reconstruction of the architect's personal habits, loves, fears, triumphs, loneliness and (in his old age) agonies."—Paul Gapp, Chicago Tribune

"A herculean, generally successful effort to present Mies's work in terms of both character and context....The substance is impressive and much of the material is fresh and revealing....This book has obviously been a long labor of love and respect for which no source has been left untouched."—Ada Louise Huxtable, New York Times Book Review

"Schulze's excellent book...is absolutely worthy of its subject. Soundly researched, vividly detailed, and hard to fault critically, it is the most complete survey ever written of Mies'[s] life and works....No one else has approached Schulze's achievement in telling the whole story over eight decades."—Allan Temko, San Francisco Chronicle Review

"Schulze has both the gift of an architectural historian able to render Mies's building innovations and that of a biographer able to paint the humanity and shortcomings of the man."—Jane Holtz Kay, Christian Science Monitor

"By its broad scope, its eloquent style, and, above all, its prodigious scholarship, this book clearly establishes itself as an indispensable volume for the library of the serious Mies scholar."—Louis Rocah, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians

"In Schulze's hands Mies is no longer the impassive monolith he has sometimes seemed to be, but a complex human being whose varying moods reflected and affected the vicissitudes of his life and work....Yet, in this model architectural biography, [Schulze] also knows and brilliantly demonstrates the integral nexus of architecture and life."—Thomas S. Hines, Progressive Architecture

"Franz Schulze's Mies van der Rohe: A Critical Biography captivates from the very first paragraph....The writer is a skillful storyteller. In his hands, Mies's life acquires the intensity and dramatic progression of a novel."—Juan Pablo Bonta, Design Book Review

"A revelation....The man who emerges from its pages is not cold and rational but exuberant and illogical."—Donald Davis, Newsweek

"[A] readable, well-researched and sympathetic biography."—Mark Girouard, Washington Post Book World

"The standard life of Mies for some time to come."—William H. Jordy, The New Criterion

"[A] distinguished and eloquent biography."—Paul Goldberger, New York Times

"[A] magnificent biography."—Diana Ketcham, The Oakland Tribune

Mies van der Rohe: A Critical Biography

Product Details

• Paperback: 380 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (October 15, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226740609
• ISBN-13: 978-0226740607
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8 x 0.8 inches

Mies Van Der Rohe: European Works (Architectural Monographs, No 11)

Mies Van Der Rohe:
European Works
(Architectural Monographs, No 11)

About The Architect:

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (March 27, 1886 – August 17, 1969) was a German architect. He was commonly referred to and addressed by his surname, Mies, by his colleagues, students, writers, and others.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, along with Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of Modern architecture. Mies, like many of his post World War I contemporaries, sought to establish a new architectural style that could represent modern times just as Classical and Gothic did for their own eras. He created an influential 20th century architectural style, stated with extreme clarity and simplicity. 

His mature buildings made use of modern materials such as industrial steel and plate glass to define interior spaces. He strived towards an architecture with a minimal framework of structural order balanced against the implied freedom of free-flowing open space. He called his buildings "skin and bones" architecture. He sought a rational approach that would guide the creative process of architectural design. He is often associated with the aphorisms "less is more" and "God is in the details". read more at wiki

List of works

Canada

• Toronto-Dominion Centre - Office Tower Complex, Toronto
• Westmount Square - Office & Residential Tower Complex, Westmount
• Nuns' Island - 3 Residential towers and a filling station (closed), Montreal (c.1969)

Czech Republic

• Tugendhat House - Residential Home, Brno

Germany

• Riehl House - Residential Home, Potsdam (1907)
• Peris House - Residential Home, Zehlendorf (1911)
• Werner House - Residential Home, Zehlendorf (1913)
• Urbig House - Residential Home, Potsdam (1917)
• Kempner House - Residential Home, Charlottenburg (1922)
• Eichstaedt House - Residential Home, Wannsee (1922)
• Feldmann House - Residential Home, Wilmersdorf (1922)
• Mosler House - Residential Home, Babelsberg (1926)
• Weissenhof Estate - Housing Exhibition coordinated by Mies and with a contribution by him, Stuttgart (1927)
• Lemke House - Residential Home, Weissensee (1932)
• Haus Lange/Haus Ester - Residential Home and an art museum, Krefeld
• New National Gallery - Modern Art Museum, Berlin

Mexico

• Bacardi Office Building - Office Building, Mexico City

Spain

• Barcelona Pavilion - World's Fair Pavilion, Barcelona

United States

• Cullinan Hall - Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
• The Promontory Apartments - Residential Apartment Complex, Chicago
• Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library - District of Columbia Public Library, Washington, DC
• Richard King Mellon Hall of Science - Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA (1968)
• IBM Plaza - Office Tower, Chicago
• Meredith Hall - College of Journalism and Mass Communication, Drake University, Des Moines, IA
• Lake Shore Drive Apartments - Residential Apartment Towers, Chicago
• Seagram Building - Office Tower, New York City (1958)
• Crown Hall - College of Architecture, and other buildings, at the Illinois Institute of Technology (1956)
• University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration - Chicago, IL (1965)
• Farnsworth House - Residential Home, Plano, Illinois (1946)
• Chicago Federal Center
  • Dirksen Federal Building - Office Tower, Chicago
  • Kluczynski Federal Building - Office Tower, Chicago
  • United States Post Office Loop Station - General Post Office, Chicago
• One Illinois Center - Office Tower, Chicago
• One Charles Center - Office Tower, Baltimore, Maryland
• Highfield House Condominium | 4000 North Charles - Condominium Apartments, Baltimore, Maryland
• Colonnade and Pavilion Apartments - Residential Apartment Complex, Newark, New Jersey (1959)
• Lafayette Park - Residential Apartment Complex, Detroit, Michigan (1963).
• Commonwealth Promenade Apartments - Residential Apartment Complex, Chicago (1957)
• Caroline Weiss Law Building, Cullinan Hall (1958) and Brown Pavilion (1974) additions, Museum of Fine Art, Houston
• Richard King Mellon Building (1968) at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh
• American Life Building - Louisville, Kentucky (1973; completed after Mies's death by Bruno Conterato) read more at wiki

 

 Mies Van Der Rohe: European Works (Architectural Monographs, No 11)

Editorial Reviews
Language Notes

Text: English
Introduction: French, German, Italian, Spanish --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

    Paperback: 112 pages
    Publisher: St Martins Pr (December 1986)
    Language: English
    ISBN-10: 0312532156
    ISBN-13: 978-0312532154
    Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches

Architectural projects illustrated by B&W photos, plans, sections, elevations, hard line axonometric views, hand sketches, and short text descriptions; ISBN: 085670685X (PB), ISBN: 085670881X (HC), ISBN: 0312532156 (PB), ISBN: 0312532148 (HC) only.
CONTENTS:
7 Foreword
11 Mies in Germany by Sandra Honey
EARLY HOUSES
26 Villa Riehi
28 Villa Werner
30 Villa Eichstaedt
32 Villa Perls
35 Villa Mosler
36 Villa Urbig
EARLY PROJECTS
38 Office Building
40 Glass Skyscraper
41 Concrete Office Building
Brick Country House
42 Concrete Country House
Traffic Control Tower
SOCIAL HOUSING
43 Afrikanische Strasse
45 Weissenhofsiedlung
Skin Projects
46 Alexanderplatz
47 Adam Building
Stuttgart Bank Building
EXHIBITIONS
48 Weissenhof Exhibition
`Mode der Dame' Exhibition
50 Barcelona Exhibition
52 Berlin `Deutsches Volk' Exhibition
Berlin Building Exhibition
53 Furniture
BUILDINGS AND PROJECTS
55 Luxemburg/Liebknecht Memorial
56 Haus Wolf
58 Haus Lange
60 Haus Esters
62 Barcelona Pavilion
70 Model Houses
72 Haus Tugendhat
78 Silk Industry Complex
80 Haus Lemke
PROJECTS
82 War Memorial
Reichsbank
84 Krefeld Administration Building
COURT-HOUSES
86 Courthouse projects
88 Gericke House
89 Hubbe House
90 Ulrich Lange House
SINGLE SPACE PROJECTS
91 House on a Hillside
Brussels Pavilion
93 Resor House
95 Mies van der Rohe: An Appreciation by Adrian Gale
101 Mies by James Gowan
102 Chronology of Mies' work in Europe
104 Bibliography
106 Résumés: French, German, Italian, Spanish