Discover Top Posts Tagged with #werner blaser

Protestant Children’s Village (1967) in Müllheim, Switzerland, by Werner Blaser

#1960s #miesian #architecture #switzerland #glass #steel #architektur #werner blaser

"Friedhof Bromhübel", cemetery Arlesheim, Basel-Landschaft, Switzerland; 1967

Werner Blaser and Paul Seiberth as architects; Ernst Baumann as garden architect; Albert Schilling as the sculpture artist (photography by Walter Grunder and Werner Blaser)

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via "Das Werk" 55 (1968)

#architecture #arquitectura #architektur #architettura #friedhof #cemetery #werner blaser #paul seiberth #ernst baumann #albert schilling #walter grunder #arlesheim #basel land #basel landschaft #basel #switzerland #swiss architecture

Holz Haus / Maisons De Bois / Wood Houses : Form in Rural Architecture

Werner Blaser

#Werner Blaser

Werner Blaser, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Chicago, 1964 VS Seated statue of Empress Helena, 2nd century

Just like many architects of his generation Mies van der Rohe designed numerous pieces of furniture and particularly emphasized the interplay of building, interior and furniture. As one of the prime writers about Mies van der Rohe’s work and philosophy architect Werner Blaser also took to the furniture and interiors of Mies and with “Mies van der Rohe - Möbel und Interieurs” in 1981 published an early reference to this pivotal aspect of Mies’ work. After a brief introduction to Mies the architect Blaser embarks on a philosophical journey into the underlying principles of Mies’ furniture designs. While his early designs are fairly traditional yet delicately executed pieces matching his early house designs Mies in unison with his increasingly abstract and skeletal architecture developed his legendary tubular steel furniture. Blaser explains how Mies used the intrinsic properties of the material in order to reduce furniture to mere lines in space. Framed e.g. in the case of the Tugendhat house by carefully selected wooden screens and huge windows they underlined the openness of the house and the free flow of space. Although the book is already 40 years old and the texts included are short it is nonetheless an essential read on the material and spatial qualities of Mies van der Rohe’s interiors and what role furniture and material properties played in it.

#mies van der rohe #monograph #furniture design #bauhaus #architecture book #book #werner blaser #art history

The example of Mies van der Rohe’s architecture has had countless followers, some of them developing further his approach, some badly and superficially imitating his style. In 1938 Mies was appointed head of the Armour Institute of Technology, later merged into the Illinois Institute of Technology, and established what was later coined the Second Chicago School based on his teaching principles and architectural convictions. The Swiss Werner Blaser in the early 1950s spent some time at the IIT and in Mies’ office, a stay that inspired him to write a history of the Second Chicago School and how it was continued after Mies’ passing: “Mies van der Rohe - Continuing the Chicago School of Architecture”, published in 1981 by Birkhäuser, offers a comprehensive overview of Mies’ teaching, his architecture, selected student works and those who continued in his footsteps.

Proceeding from the curriculum Mies outlined in New York in 1938 and which was based on earlier reflections Werner Blaser brings together a large number of original documents like Mies’ inaugural address, syllabuses or the actual course of studies at IIT. Mies concept revolved around the five core parameters structure, space, proportion, the value of materials and the relationship of painting/sculpture and architecture. As the many works by Mies, his best students and later followers like Myron Goldsmith, David Haid or Gene Summers show, within this framework variety was possible and yielded interesting and high quality results. Beyond the architectural manifestations of the Second Chicago School Werner Blaser also discusses its development after Mies’ departure and how successors like Gerald R. McSheffrey and George Schipporeit dealt with his heritage but at the same time adjusted to the changing architectural currents. They adhered to Mies time-transcending principles but within this framework were free enough to keep up with the times.

Werner Blaser’s book is integral to understanding Mies van der Rohe’s teaching and the genesis of a school that until the mid-1970s played a dominant role in American and less so in European architecture. A great read!