The Objective Matter. Transparency, reflection and mass: Visual qualities of the material in Mies

Abstract

The artisan and empirical thought that characterizes Mies’ formation in the use of material evolves into a philosophicalscientific thought that identifies matter and its expression with a significant structure. In the Friedrichstrasse Building 1921 and Crystal Skyscraper 1922, transparency, reflection and mass are the three factors that determine their shape, represented in the models, perspectives and elevations as independent visual qualities. The light that passes through the glass, which is reflected on its surface, in an abstracted vision-mass of glossy-colour, is directly linked in the light study of the skyscraper with the physical laws of nature established by science since the 17th century in an interpretation of matter and structure close to the unifying or total scientific thought of the 20th century. Transparent glass, mass or reflective glass is used as the main effect of the project, a way extended to the rest and diversity of opaque or translucent materials explored in the interior in the exhibitions held in conjunction with Llilly Reich and in the German Pavilion 1928-1929, whose complex atmosphere of transparency, reflection and mass is materialised under the new plane free of horizontal light, type and essential contribution of his work with the glass skyscraper.