Repurposing Brick Country House
The Brick Country House, drawn in 1923 by Mies van der Rohe (1886–1969), was first exhibited at the Novembergruppe exposition in 1924. The design was considered a theoretical work without any specific site context or client.
Mies used the opportunity to reinvent traditional classical architecture, introducing the concept of open plan living with controlled circulation.
The concept for this house was to free enclosing areas, but reorganise and articulate a more simplistic composition. Misaligned vertical and horizontal brick walls, free from doors and windows, were carefully arranged to create interconnecting spaces that blur the distinctions between outside or inside spaces. Three elongated walls leading out to the landscape define areas of sort, but narrate the viewers eyes between these interwoven spaces, which in plan resemble De Stijl cubist and abstract paintings. Reading from Mies’ 2D drawings of the ground floor plan and elevation, Archilogic has created a 3D model of the building. While the proposed layout and brick materiality has been preserved, the space has been reimagined as a gallery consisting of various art works made by different modern artists.
The impression of complete openness from Mies van der Rohe’s Brick Country House purposed as a dwelling can be repurposed or reimagined as a gallery, library, community space… etc. Reading from Mies 2D drawings of the ground floor plan and elevation, Archilogic applies the architect’s layout and primary material red brick to create a 3D model of the building, but repurposed the building as a gallery due its open large areas that have asymmetric flowing spaces where control is never lost. The gallery will consists of various artworks made by different artist.
On the site, stepping up white marble paved pathways that run along two walls into the ground floor while curved steel walls by Richard Serra frame the only tree on site to contrast with the straight lines of the building.
The ground floor consists of artworks by graffiti artist Banksy, cube sculptures and paintings of Donald Judd, steel sculptures by Richard Serra whereas the smaller intimate areas is a meeting room, a private office and a toilet.On first floor level consist of art installation of Urs Fischer and Cornelia Parker, (Mies never produced a drawn plan for this level but can be seen from his 1923 elevation sketch).
To conclude, building this model to replicate the architect’s plans and elevations were simple, but the difficult task was repurposing this building as a gallery. As a house the building seemed cold, lost and too large but as a gallery, large art pieces can be placed to define spaces within a space. The building is a mystery in itself. Although unbuilt, the Brick Country house served as a precedent for the Wolf House in 1927, Tugendhat house in 1930 and the Barcelona Pavilion 1929.
