How Henri Lefebvre missed the modernist sensibility of Mies van der Rohe: Vitalism at the intersection of a materialist conception of space and a metaphysical approach to architecture

Journal of Architecture

Volumn 12, Issue 1, 2007, Pages 99-112

  Watson, Victoria ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 65849524217     PISSN: 13602365     EISSN: 14664410     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13602360701218276     Document Type: Review

References (35)

1. H. Bergson, Creative Evolution, A. Mitchell, trs. (Mineola, New York, Dover Publications Inc., 1998).
2. R. Evans, The Projective Cast (Cambridge, Mass. and London, MIT Press, 1995).
3. H. Lefebvre, The Production of Space, trs., D. Nicholson-Smith (Oxford, UK and Cambridge, Mass., USA, Blackwell, 1991).
4. F. Neumeyer, The Artless Word: Mies van der Rohe on the Building Art, trs., M. Zarzombek (Cambridge, Mass. and London, MIT Press, 1991): L. Mies van der Rohe, 'On Form in Architecture', p. 257;
5. 'Notebook (1927-1928)', p. 287;
6. 'The Adam Building', p. 305;
7. 'Museum For a Small City', p. 322.
8. Lefebvre's most direct attack on Mies is to be found on page 126: '...if space may indeed be said to be specified on the basis of historical periods, societies, modes of production and relations of production, then there is such a thing as a space characteristic of capitalism - that is, characteristic of that society which is run and dominated by the bourgeoisie. It is certainly arguable that the writings and works of the Bauhaus, of Mies van der Rohe among others, outlined, formulated and helped realise that particular space...'
9. H. Lefebvre, The Production of Space, trs., D. Nicholson-Smith (Oxford, UK and Cambridge, Mass., USA, Blackwell, 1991), p. 126.
10. Ibid., p. 172.
11. Ibid., p. 173.
12. Lefebvre does not address the important question of the extent to which all species of living body participate in the second reflective function of space; in fact, he does not make it at all clear if any species, other than the human species, participates in the mirroring function.
13. Lefebvre, op. cit., p. 185.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid., p. 179.
16. Quoted in R. Evans, The Projective Cast (Cambridge, Mass. and London, MIT Press, 1995), p. 333.
17. Lefebvre, op. cit., p. 232.
18. Illustrations of this project can be found in the following publications: P. Lambert, ed., Mies in America (Montreal and New York, Canadian Centre for Architecture, Whitney Museum of Modern Art & Harry N. Abrams Inc., publishers, 2001), pp. 426-427;
19. P. Johnson, Mies van Der Rohe (London, Seeker & Warburg, 1978), pp.160-164.
20. L. Mies van der Rohe, 'Museum For a Small City' (Neumeyer, 1991), p. 322.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid.
23. Illustrations of this project can be found in the following publications: T. Riley and B. Bergdoll, eds, Mies in Berlin (New York, Museum of Modern Art, 2001), pp. 230-1;
24. P. Johnson, 1978, op. cit., p. 59.
25. L. Mies van der Rohe, 'The Adam Building' (Neumeyer, 1991), p. 305.
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid.
28. Ibid.
29. Ibid.
30. H. Bergson, Creative Evolution, A. Mitchell, trs. (Mineola, New York, Dover Publications Inc., 1998), p. 145.
31. Ibid.
32. Ibid., p.182.
33. L. Mies van der Rohe, 'On Form in Architecture' (Neumeyer, 1991), p. 257.
34. L. Mies van der Rohe, 'Notebook (1927-1928)' (Neumeyer, 1991), p. 287.
35. Bergson, op. cit., p. 183.