Lemke country house by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

The architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was born on 27.03.1886.
His birthday is 2011 for the 125th time.
For this occasion, the mies van der rohe house initiated, among other activities for this anniversary, a garden installation on the former vegetable beds of the country house Lemke in Berlin Hohenschönhausen.
The office glaßer and dagenbach landscape architects-berlin dedicated themselves to this delightful task.
The landscape architects had already been entrusted with the planning for the reconstruction of the garden complex of the Lemke country house in 2000 and the garden installation G'Miesbeete in 2007.

Draft concept of the garden complex 2000:

Before the draft was drawn up, it was necessary to weigh up whether the existing garden plan from 1932 and the aforementioned references to the original state of the garden would lead to a new interpretation or a critical reconstruction of the garden.
The 1932 garden plan was examined in detail for proportions, spatial formations, visual relationships, and topographical statements prior to design development.
The result of this examination led to the decision to develop the preliminary design essentially as a reconstruction of the most important design features of the original 1932 garden plan.
In particular, the position and size of the garden walls, which are recognisable in parts in the 1932 garden plan and in photographs, are, in our opinion, of decisive importance, as they determine the proportion of individual garden areas and form a clear and defining division of the open space.

The rubble stone walls were moved far into the seaward garden space parallel to the building. They form a rhythm of three elongated 90 degree angles and two shorter 90 degree angles offset from each other.
The three elongated wall sections delimit the so-called fruit meadow. The distance of the walls from the seaward edge of the house at the terrace corresponds to a double length of a building section. The orchard thus forms a square of twice the length of the eastern part of the building as far as the north-western boundary of the property.
The eastern boundary of the orchard is bounded by a path of stepping stones of different sizes in extension of the north-western end of the western part of the building. This path leads from the terrace to the lake. In the area of the lime tree and the quarry stone walls, 4-5 shallow treads lead to the lawn area at the lake, which is approximately 50-60 cm lower.
In the gap between the elongated wall sections and the shorter wall angles at the eastern property boundary, the lawn "flows" evenly from the former bedroom window to the level of the bank near the lake, which is close to the water level.

Two distinct garden spaces were created as viewed from the building:

1. The level orchard in the southwest garden section
2. The lawn flowing from the building to the lake in the southeast.

In the building angle, the patio area was restored in accordance with the 1932 garden plan.
A striped surface of red, hand-laid, rectangular split-grain Weser sandstone slabs was created. The existing walnut tree was replaced with a larger specimen that was better than the existing in habit and crown formation. In accordance with the garden plan of 1932, planting beds of various sizes and functions were placed in front of the terrace area.
Northwest of the terrace, a planting bed of approx. 20 m² was created, which served as a background for the view from the south-eastern living room. The planting was to be staggered perennials, grasses, roses and smaller conifers such as juniper and dwarf pine. In northwestern continuation of this planting bed, the
former striped summer flower beds were recreated in a citational manner. According to the necessary care possibilities, areal plantings of lavender, sage, gamander, ribbon flower, woolly zest, ground-covering roses, stock mallows, Siberian and German iris were proposed.
Southwest of the terrace, a smaller rather amorphous planting bed was proposed. Here only a few slender woody plants with perennials and grasses form a perspective support to the lake view.
North of the existing hornbeam hedge was the former vegetable garden. It has been reinterpreted with striped area planting (pokebill, red-leaved purple bellflower , woodland rush etc) and rowed specimen shrubs (alpine currant, redcurrant, hydrangea). A multi-stemmed birch tree was proposed in front of the northeast gable of the house to serve as a view screen from the much taller buildings north of Oder Street.
The climbing rose (New Dawn) located on the gable wall was retained or replaced depending on the foundation restoration options.
The narrow planting bed in front of the gable wall was given a flat perennial and grass planting of decorative, robust species.
A low hedge of hornbeam was proposed along the fence on Upper Lake Street. The hedge ends at the northwest corner of the building. The paths, steps and walls in this area have been restored in accordance with the existing and 1932 garden plan.
Fencing, together with enclosure wall along Upper Lake Road have been designed and renewed on the building side.
The planting strip between building and public footpath receives a more valuable and more decorative planting of half-high deciduous shrubs and conifers such as yews, hydrangeas, box, azaleas and an underplanting of perennials and grasses.
The bed on the left of the garage entrance was framed by a hedge of alpine currant. A robinia in this bed over the representative planting of rhododendron and azaleas.
East of the garage door the location for a bin (240 litres, or 3 bins each 120 litres) was proposed. The garbage place was shaded by another robinia, which at the same time visually shields the neighboring buildings.
Access / driveway were made of clinker bricks. Design and construction will be by Structural Engineering.
The planting along the eastern boundary of the site was again as noted in the 1932 garden plan, consisting of a background planting of firethorn and occasional interspersed flowering shrubs (e.g. lilac, colkwitzia spirea). On the garden side, this planting is preceded by a shallow, free-swinging wild shrub planting that extends to the lakeshore.
Three mountain pines, also noted on the 1932 plan, were integrated into this planting.
The limestone garden walls retain the rock garden planting typical of the period. On a photograph of 1932 Cerastemum tomentosum (hornwort) is clearly recognizable.
The immediate area of the lakeshore, which is not designed as a lawn was designed close to nature and typical of the site (wet shore location: eg Filipendula ulminaria, Acorus gramineus, Iris sibirica, Trollius cultorum , primroses, etc.).

Along the north-western boundary of the property, a 2-4 m wide border of a mixed flowering hedge of lilac, elder, false jasmine, spirea shrubs, etc. screens the property.

The orchard has been planted with semi-stem ornamental fruit (ornamental apple, ornamental cherry and some apple ,plum and cherry trees.

The sculpture currently still on the property was integrated in coordination with the sculptor in the newly designed garden space.

Draft concept of the garden installation 2011:

A star for Mies - a star for Mies
In discussions with Ms. Wita Noack , the director of the Mies van der Rohe House in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen, the idea arose to refer to the former revolutionary monument by Mies in Berlin Friedrichsfelde from 1926.
This clinkered monument to the murdered socialists Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht was a work of architectural art of international standing and in its conception far ahead of its time.
It was destroyed by the National Socialists in 1935.

The garden installation takes up design principles of the destroyed monument and above all of the destruction process in the sense of a deconstruction and transformed symbolic reconstruction.

The displaced, superimposed cubes are transformed into parallel planting beds. These are bordered with rough-sawn timber beams and - where the subsoil permits - raised with formwork panels. The beds are planted with red-leaved grass (Ophipogon planiscarpos nigrescens), high-stem roses, ground-cover roses and bedding roses.
All beds were covered (mulched) with red brick chippings, creating a strong contrast with adjacent lawns, which were produced by rolled turf.

The star as a motif of the former monument is "stamped" 40 cm deep into the ground.
Rough sawn timber boards form the walls. It became a point of communication, equal to the functioning of a Japanese Kotatsu table. The floor of the star is also covered with red brick chips. The star was thus released from the meaning of its former political message and became a sign, as in Mies' design sketch.
- a star for Mies -

Exhibition concept: Mies quotes on botanical signs in the garden

Another element of the garden installation detaches from the actual site of the structural measures.
The idea is to create an exhibition of essential Mies quotations, which presents quotations in the simplest and most subtle way possible in such a way that their perception is heightened by detaching them from usual presentation frames.

Plug-in signs made of sheet steel with earth spikes, as used in botanical gardens to identify individual plant species, are distributed in the beds of the garden. Instead of plant names, they show quotes by Mies van der Rohe.