Mies Contra Le Corbusier

“In his latest re - interpretation of the received history of modern architecture Gevork Hartoonian reveals the ideological consequences of the fundamentally different approaches taken by Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe to the challenge of the technological invention of framed construction in either steel or concrete in relation to the continued partial use of load bearing masonary .This differentiation made itself particularly evident in the attitude that they each took towards the articulation of the column versus the wall. As Gevork points out it was their rereading of the new in terms of the classical Greek past that was particularly symptomatic of the differentiated manner in which they both interpreted the technically new in relation to the past in terms of a specific cultural difference between the wall versus the column that was not always understood by their respective acolytes.”

Kenneth Frampton, Emeritus Professor of Architecture at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University, New York

“This insightful parallel analysis of Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier through the lens of the non-synchronicity inherent in their approaches to the tectonics of the column and wall provides a fertile terrain for exploring the cultural and technological forces shaping the built environment. At the core of Gevork Hartoonian’s captivating and inspiring book is the intriguing idea of relating the ways in which the two modernist architects conceived tectonics to a historiography centred on a new way of understanding temporalities and the criticality of modern architecture.”

Marianna Charitonidou, Senior Lecturer and Senior Researcher in Architecture and Urban Studies at Athens School of Fine Arts and the University of West Attica, and Stanley J. Seeger Visiting Research Fellow at Princeton University.