Mies van der Rohe / Lemke Haus, Berlin

Today I visited the Lemke House, which was built by Mies van der Rohe in 1933 for Karl Lemke.

The building belongs to the city and is open to the public. It is used as an art gallery. http://www.miesvanderrohehaus.de/

It was the first building by MvdR I’ve seen live and I was pretty stunned how small it actually was. The building site is surrounded by early 20th century houses designed for up to three parties and the Lemke house is easily dwarfed by any of them. In addition the German Democratic Republic, following its policy to have as many people live on as few space as humanly possible, has built some not so eye friendly living farms just across the street. You can see them in the back of some of the following images, though the images dont really show the uglyness of those buildings.

None the less the building in itself is pretty interesting. The clean form is not interrupted by any unnecessary detail and despite its age it feels very futuristic. And though dwarfed by its neighbors the building is a full fledged single family home on the inside and doesnt feel small at all. The ceiling is more than 3m tall and the huge windows make sure, you dont feel crammed inside.

Definitely worth a visit for anyone who is interested in architecture.