The New National Gallery of Art (Berlin, Germany, 1962-68) was Mies van der Rohe's last great building - the culmination of his aesthetic ideas and his sixty-year-long career. The gallery's compositional effect is classical, an impression that arises from the way in which the steel stanchions are carefully proportioned and spaced to recall classical columns; while the vast overhanging steel roof was intended to evoke a notional entablature. Sheltered by this roof is a great abstract "universal" space capable of subdivision by freestanding panels designed for the hanging of artworks.
Overall, the building is a monumental statement but one which bears witness to Mies's consummate sense of detail and craftsmanship in steel.
'Architecture In Detail' is a superbly photographed and technically informative series of monographs which embraces a broad spectrum of internationally renowned buildings, drawn predominantly from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Each sixty-page volume contains a lucid text by a respected author; a sequence of large-format, high-quality colour and black and white photographs; a comprehensive set of technical drawings and working details; and a complete bibliography and chronology, thus making these books the definitive work on the subject. They are essential purchases for enthusiasts, practitioners and students alike.
