Designs contrasted with three building projects

Given that the complete scope and quality of Mies van der Rohe's work only emerges if his design oeuvre is seen in the context of the buildings he created at the same time, we are showing the furniture within its architectural setting. The designs are thus contrasted with the three building projects for which van der Rohe designed the majority of his furniture: the residential premises on the Weissenhof housing estate in Stuttgart, the Barcelona Pavilion, and the Villa Tugendhat. These buildings are on show in the form of architectural models and interior models featuring miniature chairs, demonstrating the subtle interplay between architecture and interior decoration in van der Rohe's buildings.
This comparison between van der Rohe's buildings and his furniture designs sheds a new light on his work as a designer. The aesthetic and technical relationships between furniture and buildings is emphasized, visible in elements ranging from van der Rohe's formal idiom to the way he treats the details. Sometimes, parallels become apparent, allowing us to see the furniture as architecture "en miniature". However, the fundamentally different demands of and methods of approach to the two areas of work are also elucidated.

The Exhibition

A wide selection of documents accompanies the objects and architectural models. High-grade reproductions of patents, sales brochures, ground plans and diagrams are on show at illuminated desks, and photographs offer an impression of the elegance of Mies van der Rohe's buildings. Numerous documents from the estate of Anton Lorenz, a key figure in the success story of tubular steel furniture, are being shown in public for the first time at this exhibition.

The comprehensive catalogue constitutes an all-purpose reference work on the entire spectrum of furniture design by Mies van der Rohe and on the three buildings. It contains essays by Otakar Macel, Jutta Sachsenröder, Carl Magnusson, Karin Schulte, Wolf Tegethoff, and Werner Blaser, among others. Over 240 historical and contemporary illustrations highlight the furniture and buildings for the first time in detail - with reproductions of original drawings, patents, and building plans.