Next year the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) will open a seminal new exhibition: Mies van der Rohe & James Stirling: Circling the Square. The show will examine two iconic schemes proposed for the same site in the City of London: Mies van der Rohe’s unrealised Mansion House Square project (developed by Lord Peter Palumbo) and its built successor, James Stirling Michael Wilford & Associates’ No.1 Poultry.
In the words of the curators, Marie Bak Mortensen and Vicky Wilson, "the design history of the two schemes spans three decades of the mid-20th Century, a highly transitional period in the history of architecture where the movements and influences of pop art, high modernism and postmodernism co-existed and collided." Presented together for the first time, the exhibition will provide a unique opportunity to compare the design methods of two of the most highly recognized architects of the last century, and to "trace the continuity in purpose and approach that unites two seemingly dissimilar architectural creations."
The exhibition will be designed by London-based practice Carmody Groarke Architects.
