Silk Administration Building project, Krefeld, Germany (Elevation)
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
American, born Germany. 1886–1969
1938
A meticulously rendered pencil-on-illustration-board elevation for Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s proposed Silk Administration Building in Krefeld, Germany, aiming to express a rational, modern office block through spare, geometric form and disciplined proportion.
What strikes you is the crystalline precision—ruler-straight lines, repeating bands of glazing and planar facades that flatten space into a calm, measured geometry.
This drawing distills Mies’s 'less is more' philosophy and helped codify the steel-and-glass, minimalist language of the International Style that shaped mid-20th-century corporate and institutional architecture.
Medium
Pencil on illustration board
Dimensions
28 5/8 x 40 1/8" (72.7 x 109.9 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Purchase
Accession
258.1986
Art Terms
Exhibitions
