2024-12-31T04:44:05-05:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/149943911/completing-the-mies-van-der-rohe-brick-country-house-an-odyssey Gary Garvin 2016-05-05T16:01:00-04:00 >2016-05-15T17:05:56-04:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/d7/d7lms2zla2jbk1bb.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><em><p>A brick is an obdurate object of ambiguity that hovers between idea and matter, between life and death. Its texture can be smoothed to glide our touch or left rough and abrade. It can be molded into even shapes for consistent construction or made uneven, presenting individual challenges each time one is laid in a course. But while it can come close to an ideal oblong shape, it never attains perfection, and it can as much be said that it approaches perfection as it resists it.</p></em><br /><br /><p>I have revisited my&nbsp;<a href="http://archinect.com/features/article/133573310/completing-mies-van-der-rohe-s-brick-country-house" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">piece</a> on the Mies van der Rohe Brick County House that appeared at <em>Archinect</em>. It is a literary essay that I hope adds some extension and insight. It looks back to the Greeks and forward to recent architecture, adding reflections on Modernism and current work. Many questions are raised along the way.</p>