Haus Lange and Haus Esters are two residential houses in Krefeld, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, for German industrialists Hermann Lange and Josef Esters. They were built between 1928 and 1930 in the Bauhaus style. The houses have now been converted into museums for Contemporary art.


The interiors designed in collaboration with Lilly Reich were only partially realized. Much like the exterior forms, the box-like interior spaces also interlock. Mies integrated display cabinets and sideboards into the wall, but otherwise the rooms remained sparsely furnished. The houses nevertheless both have the conventional layout of a home for the upper middle class, with lockable doors and separate living areas. For Mies van der Rohe, this was a compromise that he made only reluctantly – he had advocated an open spatial concept and wanted to liberate the interior from a traditional spatial arrangement.

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