Design book spotlight: 'Mies' by Detlef Mertins

After 10 years in the making, a definitive monograph on the iconic architect Mies van der Rohe has been published.

"Mies" explores the life and career of the towering 20th century modernist, reconstructing the artistic, historical and intellectual contexts within which van der Rohe lived and worked.

Featuring over 700 images in both color and black and white, the book traces the trajectory of a complex and contradictory figure -- a self-educated stonemason's son from a provincial town whose career spanned 60 years, two continents, two dynamic cities (Berlin and then Chicago) and two world wars.

Broken up into the themes of Critical Realism: Life and Form; Avant-garde: Art and Life; Task: Mastering Modernity; Organic Architecture; Unfolding Structure; and Event Space: Living Life Large, "Mies" covers all of van der Rohe's most celebrated buildings from the Barcelona Pavilion (1828-9) to the Seagram Building (1954-8) and from the Farnsworth House, Illinois (1945-50) to the New National Gallery in Berlin (1962-8).

Written by former architectural author and professor Detlef Mertins (1954-2011), the monograph also looks at his unrealized projects and contextualizes his iconic furniture design, such as the Brno chair and the world-famous Barcelona couch, amongst other iconic pieces.

Mies is available to purchase from Phaidon for £100/€125.