It is compareble to the pocket edition published by Gustavo Gili (G.G.) and that has long ago vannished from the stores for having souch a large demand. This version by Warner Blaser has a better quality layout, at a higher price and larger format but keeps the contents to the essence. It doesn't teach you his concepts and goals, it is his works for your own interpretation. For those Mies van der Rohes` fans, it is a book to keep under the pillow.

A somewhat essential book for the interested student, it lists out what I believe are the great master's early works before the Nazi era ended his days in Europe. Though the texts are brief in description, the black and white photographs screams for hours of close attention and observation, for though unclear they are, eaten by the hunger of time, they offer the reader a different scope about his works. From traditional masonry to steel and glass, the book offers little stand about van der Rohe's lines and designs. It doesnt offer much argument if his steel and glass structures are very much derived from the proportions of the Romans (the conventional school of thought today offer this as the truth), nor does it explain much about his calculated dealings with Hitler's architectural department before he got caught up and subsequently branded a degenerate, nor does it elaborate anything on the communist-related projects he had done before. His later collaborator Ms.Reich does get a brief mention, but as in the rest of this rather thin monograph , everything's brief, but makes a good quick reference into the almost unknown timezones of this 20th century, and perhaps of all time, greatest master architect.