Steel and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. No, that's not quite right. But steel and stones were very right for two of the greatest modern architects, Peter Behrens and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and their aesthetic approaches to these materials were notably similar. Steel and Stone examines the grammar of detailing apparent throughout their built repertoire, from Behrens's groundbreaking AEG Turbine Factory to Mies's IIT Campus in Chicago and his later American skyscrapers. Accompanying essays analyze the changing role of steel construction, from the industrial mainstream towards a highly expressive vocabulary of building art, and shows how the limits of traditional typological thinking are erased step by step. Author Mechthild Heuser also argues that the unmasking of formerly hidden steel skeletons and the unfolding of their aesthetic potential was made possible by the influence of photography. Lastly, steel is considered as a medium of cultural exchange, through which can be traced the flow of technology and aesthetics between Germany and the United States.
Essay by Mechthild Heuser.
