Inside Mies van der Rohe’s only UK design

The Real foundation’s head Jack Self and Yulia Rudenko’s newest book is the stuff architecture enthusiasts’ dreams are made of. Produced by the foundation and born out of meticulous research, painstaking restoration and a hefty dose of passion for modernist architecture, ‘Mies in London’ tells the story of Mies van der Rohe’s only UK design, Mansion House Square.
‘Mies in London is REAL’s longest-running and most complex project to date, taking three years in as many continents’, explains Self. ‘No expense was spared in making one of the most comprehensive projects about any of Mies’ works.’
Beautifully designed by OK-RM, the luxurious, tactile tome includes 160 pages of previously unseen material on the project, such as dates and timelines, drawings, photographs and sketches. The wealth of images has been collected from a range of institutions, such as the RIBA, the CCA and Drawing Matter, as well as private collections, making this book a truly collectible item, with a focus on facts and information, rather than academic essays.
Mansion House Square was commissioned in 1962 by Lord Peter Palumbo. The commercial tower was to be set within the City of London but quickly became the subject of controversy which unfolded during the following years, mostly due to, says Self, a shift in public opinion against modernist architecture at the time. The project was finally abandoned in 1984 through City Inquiry, even though it was designed by one of the greatest architects of the 20th century.
Accompanying the book is a limited edition series of travertine ashtrays and bronze door handle paperweights, based on Mies’s original designs for the project. The Real foundation collaborated with architectural product manufacturer Ize on the latter.
The project would have been the great master's only building in the UK
The book was curated by the Real foundation's head Jack Self and Yulia Rudenko
Spanning 160 pages, Mies in London includes previously unseen material on the project, such as drawings, photographs and sketches
A limited edition series of travertine ashtrays and bronze door handle paperweights based on Mies’s original designs for Mansion House Square accompany the publication
The tome has been designed beautifully by graphics experts OK-RM
INFORMATION
For more information visit the publication's website
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).
-
Y.Z. Kami's meditative, architecturally-inspired Domes take over Gagosian Beverly Hills
A collection of Kami's Dome and Messenger paintings are currently united at Gagosian Beverly Hills
-
Bees can now check in at Kew’s new pollinator hotel
At Wakehurst, Kew’s wild botanic garden, artist Kristina Pulejkova unveils four functional sculptures that tell the hidden story of seeds and act as a refuge for bees during the heat of summer
-
Andu Masebo and The Singleton’s bespoke furniture celebrates the beauty in slow craft
British designer Andu Masebo collaborates with single malt Scotch whisky The Singleton on a multifunctional furniture piece boasting minimal design codes
-
Inside Frank Lloyd Wright’s Laurent House – a project built with accessibility at its heart
The dwelling, which you can visit in Illinois, is a classic example of Wright’s Usonian architecture, and was also built for a client with a disability long before accessibility was widely considered
-
A guide to modernism’s most influential architects
From Bauhaus and brutalism to California and midcentury, these are the architects who shaped modernist architecture in the 20th century
-
Mayumi Miyawaki’s Fukumura Cottage puts this lesser-known Japanese modernist in the spotlight
Discover the little-known modernist architect through this private home in Japan’s Tochigi prefecture countryside
-
Eileen Gray: A guide to the pioneering modernist’s life and work
Gray forever shaped the course of design and architecture. Here's everything to know about her inspiring career
-
Kengo Kuma’s ‘Paper Clouds’ in London is a ‘poem’ celebrating washi paper in construction
‘Paper Clouds’, an installation by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, is a poetic design that furthers research into the use of washi paper in construction
-
Foster + Partners to design the national memorial to Queen Elizabeth II
For the Queen Elizabeth II memorial, Foster + Partners designs proposal includes a new bridge, gates, gardens and figurative sculptures in St James’ Park
-
Discover Canadian modernist Daniel Evan White’s pitch-perfect homes
Canadian architect Daniel Evan White (1933-2012) had a gift for using the landscape to create extraordinary homes; revisit his story in an article from the Wallpaper* archives (first published in 2011)
-
Tour this fire-resilient minimalist weekend retreat in California
A minimalist weekend retreat was designed as a counterpoint to a San Francisco pied-à-terre; Edmonds + Lee Architects’ Amnesia House in Napa Valley is a place for making memories