This 1928 competition called for the design of a multiuse building with a banking hall and retail and office space in central Stuttgart. The photograph used as the basis for the entries represented here features a busy intersection with pedestrians, cars, traffic signs, and the recently completed railroad station by architect Paul Bonatz (German, 1877–1956). Inserted into this milieu, just a corner of the projected building is visible, framed on either side by the existing urban fabric. Photomontage is used to graphically describe the proposed building’s impact on the site, introducing collage as a critical element both in how the city is imagined and how it might be transformed. Mies van der Rohe made use of new building technologies and commercial advertising to distinguish his proposed building, which is sheathed in glass, from its surroundings.
Gallery label from Cut 'n' Paste: From Architectural Assemblage to Collage City, July 10–December 1, 2013.