Brief Introduction：

“Ordinary things contain the deepest mysteries.” Robin Evans’s remark may sound a little exaggerated, and yet it fits certain architects particularly well—those who are able to draw creative ideas from everyday life. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was one such architect.

This lecture focuses on that very development. We will reconstruct Mies’s daily life in his Berlin apartment and examine how these ordinary experiences informed his understanding of modern living and, in turn, led him to make key transformations and create works such as the MR chair, the Weissenhof Housing Exhibition, and the Tugendhat House—projects that helped define modern architecture and design. Thereupon, we shall discuss the relationship between architects’ lifestyles and their domestic work, and reflect on how the everyday is transformed into the extraordinary.

Lecturer：

Assoc. Prof. Xiangnan Xiong

Xiangnan XIONG is Associate Professor at the School of Design, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on modern architecture in Central Europe and America. Her work include a monograph Mies at Home (Routledge, 2022; paperback 2024) and articles/reviews published in Journal of Architecture and Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. She is also co-translator of Adolf Loos’s Trotzdem, 1900–1930.

Moderator：

Assoc. Prof. Qian Feng，CAUP, Tongji University

Time：

September 26(Friday) 10:00-11:35

Venue：

D2 Conference room, CAUP, Tongji University