The German-American architect, art critic, and urban planner Ludwig
Hilberseimer was central to avant-garde art and architecture in the
Weimar Republic, an important Bauhaus teacher, and long-standing
collaborator of leading modern architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
Despite being internationally-known for his work on Lafayette Park in
Detroit, Hilberseimer's legacy as a whole has been obscured in the
history of modern architecture. Whether this is due to the intense
shadow cast by Mies, or by his oeuvre being split between the differing
languages and contexts of interwar Germany and postwar North America,
this book argues that the time is now right for a critical reassessment
of Hilberseimer's work and writings.
Published as part of the Bloomsbury Studies in Modern Architecture
series, which brings to light the work of significant yet overlooked
modernist architects, this study clarifies and situates Hilberseimer's
ideas both as an architect and writer, and examines their influence on
modern and contemporary architecture and urbanism. The first synthetic
account of Hilberseimer in English, it provides a contextual account of
Hilberseimer's works which have until now been subject to fragmentary or
highly specialized interpretations. By demonstrating the influence of
Hilberseimer's ideas on the architecture of Mies van der Rohe, the book
also lends Mies's work a newfound urban significance.
