MIES 1:1 Das Golfclub Projekt © Frank Werthebach, 2013

In 1930, Mies van der Rohe, at the height of his European career, designed a golf clubhouse on the outskirts of Krefeld, Germany. While Mies’s design was never realized, this year Belgian architects Robbrecht en Daem and the Mies in Krefeld (MIK) Society constructed MIES 1:1 The Golf Club Project—a full-scale model of the clubhouse at the originally planned site in Krefeld. Based on sketches and plans from MoMA’s Mies van der Rohe Archives, MIES 1:1 was conceived as a site of investigation into Mies’s legacy and architectural language, his work in Krefeld, and the idea of the “model” in architecture and art.

On October 23, project curator Christiane Lange, architect and artistic director Paul Robbrecht, and curator Julian Heynen will give a series of related presentations about MIES 1:1. Lange will explore the historical background of Mies’s original design and the various meanings and public reception of the 1:1 model. Robbrecht will discuss his approach to the model’s source materials and how he approximated the 80-year-old designs. Lastly, Heynen will situate the 1:1 model within the broader context of architectural and artistic strategies.

Julian Heynen studied art history and literature and is currently Artistic Director at Large of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf. He was co-curator of the Shanghai Biennale in 2008 and commissioner of the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2003 and 2005. In the 1980s and 1990s he was Director of Exhibitions at Kunstmuseen Krefeld, curating many shows of contemporary art at Haus Lange and Haus Esters, two villas designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in 1927-1930. Heynen has curated numerous exhibitions of the works of artists including: Bruce Nauman, Thomas Schütte, Franz West, Andreas Gursky, Juan Muñoz, Richard Deacon, Thomas Struth, Lothar Baumgarten, Luc Tuymans, Rosemarie Trockel, Stan Douglas, Thomas Ruff, Daniel Richter, Rodney Graham, Candida Höfer, Martin Kippenberger, and Roman Ondák, as well as many group exhibitions. He has written widely on contemporary art since the 1960s. Heynen is based in Düsseldorf and Berlin.

Christiane Lange holds master’s degrees in art history and history from the universities at Bonn and Regensburg. She is a founding member of “projektMIK,” Krefeld, Germany. Her research, exhibitions and films focus on the European work of Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich.As a member of the German Research Foundation, Lange catalogs all furniture designs, realized and un-realized, by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Lange’s most recent publication is titled Mies van der Rohe, Bauten für die Seidenindustrie (Berlin, 2011).

Paul Robbrecht received his degree in architecture at HSLI, Ghent in 1974. In 1975 he co-founded Robbrecht en Daem architecten with Hilde Daem. Since 1992 he has been Professor of Architectural Design at HSLI, Ghent. Robbrecht is a member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts and an International Fellow of Royal Academy of British Architecture (RIBA). Robbrecht and Daem were finalists for the 2013 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture / Mies van der Rohe Award for their project Market Hall - Reconstruction Korenmarkt, E. Braunplein and surroundings, Ghent.

This event is presented in partnership with the Goethe-Institut Chicago and the Mies van der Rohe Society at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Related Links
Projekt Mies in Krefeld
http://www.projektmik.com/
Robbrecht en Daem
http://www.robbrechtendaem.com/