Mies in Europe: the slow history of the Krefeld houses

A talk by Philip Boyle

Recorded at The Gallery 21st June 2022

The Haus Lange and Haus Esters in Krefeld, Germany (1927-30) are Mies’ earliest surviving built Modern Movement work. Completed a couple of years after his Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht Monument to the Revolution, and overshadowed by the fame of his Barcelona Pavillion and the Tugendhat House, the qualities of the Krefeld houses have been largely overlooked. It is only since the 1980s with Wolf Tegethoff’s book Mies van der Rohe: The Villas and Country Houses that they have been more fully appreciated.

This talk explores Mies’ design process, the problems he encountered, and the lessons he took from these projects to his later more famous work.

Philip Boyle is an architect who studied at the Bartlett. He did research at the Ministry of Housing and Local Government Development Group. In 1966 he joined one of the new local boroughs as an architect designing and building council housing and public buildings until 1991. He then worked for Milton Keynes Development Corporation and in several private practices. He is Secretary of GLAC and has been co-ordinator of Docomomo UK since 1999.