La presente tesis propone un análisis pormenorizado del proyecto de Rascacielos para la Friedrichstrasse, realizado por Mies van der Rohe en el periodo de entre guerras de 1921/22, y por ende del posterior Rascacielos de Cristal. Varios son los motivos que hacen de estas obras las elegidas, pero una más actual sobresale del resto. Si su importancia como punto de inflexión en el desarrollo inicial de una obra plenamente moderna parece un motivo más que suficientes para dedicarle un estudio, ya que puede resultar crucial para comprender los comienzos del autor en el Movimiento Moderno. Su presencia como imagen de unos propuestas que pertenecen de pleno derecho a la historia de la arquitectura acarrea -en nuestra opinión- significaciones igual de importantes para la comprensión de unas obras y una época, donde los nuevos medios visuales del cine y la fotografía -en pleno desarrollo- empiezan a ser cuestionados. Pero sobre todo permiten aportar una reflexión paralela sobre el problema de la representación y el uso que en última instancia se hace de la imagen en la arquitectura.
Si la intención es reflexionar sobre este hecho contemporáneo mediante un ejemplo paradigmático certificado por la historia. Al encontrarse en esa frontera de lo nunca realizado pero sí asumible espacialmente, nos veremos obligados a emplear una metodología acorde a la interpretación ambivalente que toda imagen produce en su lectura como mezcla fluctuante entre lo que se interpreta de manera autónoma a través de lo representado y de los significados que adquiere a lo largo de su recorrido histórico. Esta doble condición divide la tesis en dos partes diferenciadas pero complementarias entre sí. La imagen de una arquitectura analiza la interpretación que la crítica y autor han dado sobre los rascacielos a través de las diferentes publicaciones y exposiciones, verdadero espacio donde residen estas arquitecturas imaginarias. Mientras La arquitectura de una imagen plantea una inmersión total en la lectura del proyecto y el conjunto de eventos históricos que aplicados sobre la ciudad, lugar, tipología y procesos técnicos dieron lugar a esta arquitectura
El recorrido historiográfico servirá para establecer un estado de la cuestión donde se revela una lectura divergente entre el argumentario inicial del arquitecto y la interpretación dada por la crítica. Así, si por un lado el discurso del autor menciona un proceso de formalización objetivo y ajeno a toda especulación estética, donde la forma es solo un mero resultado y no un fin en sí mismo. Las particulares formas triangulares del primero -y sinuosas del segundo- serán motivo de una multitud de juicios estéticos variados, que irán creciendo con el tiempo hacia una admiración artística con una profunda y misteriosa carga poética y utópica. Por el otro, mientras las descripciones más realistas de las vistas sirven a los historiadores como ejemplo de una expresión moderna y tecnológica del vidrio y el acero, se ignora la presencia por igual de un emplazamiento cargado con una clara experimentación fenomenológica.
Esta serie de dudas y contradicciones sobre lo que realmente muestran las vistas, plantas y alzados, exigen su revisión como parte de lo que también son: expresión de las necesidades de un lugar y tiempo muy determinados. El análisis del primero nos lleva a estudiar los requerimientos de la propia historia de la parcela y los condicionantes del concurso, así como la respuesta dada por una mayoría de participantes. Lo que revela la importancia de una actitud proyectual y contextual común, ciertamente objetiva y pragmática, alejada del carácter utópico. A su vez, la naturaleza fotográfica del conjunto de vistas nos revela una ejecución física -todavía hoy sin aclarar del todo- donde aparecen una serie de incoherencias geométricas importantes que nos llevan a reconstruir virtualmente el proyecto y lugar.
El descubrimiento de un preciso trampantojo oculto en las vistas del primero -nunca antes revelado- provoca una nueva lectura de ambos proyectos llena de intenciones espaciales de dislocación, ritmo y simultaneidad. Y abre la puerta a la comprensión de un proceso de formalización -tenazmente defendido por su autor- donde la forma no es el fin sino el resultado de una manera de pensar el espacio como algo vivo y siempre cambiante, como una forma nunca estacionada. Y lo representado se entiende como la expresión subjetiva –espacial- de una arquitectura. Directamente ligado a la percepción del vidrio en la urbe y a las preocupaciones de una vanguardia afín, en la que Hans Richter, Moholy Nagy y El Lissitzky parecen haber servido de ejemplo y motivación mutua. En definitiva, por medio de indagar en la verdadera naturaleza física y simbólica de lo representado por Mies, nos encontramos ante unas vistas cuya poética precisa va más allá de la forma directamente transcrita para da cuerpo a la arquitectura que representan. Una reflexión final de gran pertinencia crítica para el mundo virtual de hoy.

The present thesis proposes a detailed study of the Friedrichstrasse Skyscraper, design realized by Mies van der Rohe in 1921/22 during the period between World Wars I and II, and consequently its subsequent the Glass Skyscraper. There are many reasons why this work has been chosen, but one of the most recent stands out above the rest. If its importance as a point of inflection in the initial development of a completely modern work is more than enough reason to make a detailed study, since it may be crucial for understanding the author’s beginnings in the Modern Movement. Its presence as images of works that belong in full right to the history of architecture -in our opinion- carry meanings that are as important for understanding these works and epoch, where the new languages of photography and cinema -in full swing-  begin to be questioned. But above all allows us to provide a parallel reflection on the problem of representation and the ultimately use of the image in architecture.
If the intention is to reflect on this contemporary fact using a paradigmatic example certified by history. Owing to the fact that it is on that frontier of the never-accomplished but spatially assumable, we will be forced to use a methodology that corresponds to the ambivalent interpretation produced by the reading of all media images, as a fluctuating combination of what is interpreted independently through the representation and meanings acquires along its historical journey. This dual condition will lead this essay to be structured in two clearly different and complementary blocks. The image of an architecture analyses the interpretation history and the author have given to the skyscrapers through its various publications and exhibitions, real space in which these imaginary architectures reside. Meanwhile The architecture of an image is presented more as a total immersion in the project world and the set of historical events that applied to the city, place, typology and technical processes gave rise to this architecture.
The historiographic tour will serve to establish a state of the question that reveals a divergent reading between the architect’s initial argument and the interpretation given by critics. Thus, if on one hand the architect’s discourse mentions an objective  formalization process far removed from all aesthetic speculation, where form is a mere result and not an end in itself. The particular triangular shapes of the former -and the sinuous shapes of the latter- will generate many aesthetic classifications, which have grown over time into artistic admiration laden with a profound and mysterious poetic and utopian load. On the other hand, meanwhile the more realistic descriptions of views will serve historians as examples of a modern and technological expression of glass and iron, the equal presence of a place loaded with clear phenomenological experimentation is ignored.
This series of doubts and contradictions, on what really views, plants and elevations, display requires a renewed reading for what they also are: expression of an the special needs of a very specific place and time. The analysis of the first one leads us to study the requirements of the plot’s own history and the conditions of the competition, as well as the response given by majority of participants. This reveals the importance of a common approach in terms of project and context attitude, certainly objective and pragmatic, far away from the  utopian character. In turn, the photographic nature on a set of views reveals a physical execution -still remains unexplained in full- where a number of important geometrical incoherences appear, what brings us to virtually rebuild the project and place.
The discovery of a precise trompe l’oeil hide in the images of the first project -never before revealed- causes a new reading of both projects full of spatial intentions of dislocation, rhythm and simultaneity. And opens the door to the understanding of a formalization process -tenaciously defended by its author- where form is not the end but the result of a new way of thinking space as something alive and ever changing, like a never fixed form. And the representation is understood as the subjective-spatial-expression of an architecture. Directly linked to the glass perception in the city and to the concerns of a related avant-garde, in which Hans Richter, Moholy Nagy and El Lissitzky seem to have served as examples and mutual motivation. In short, by means of investigating the true physical and symbolic nature of Mies representations, we found ourselves in the presence of views whose precise poetic goes beyond the form directly transcribed to give body to the architecture they represent. A final thought  of great critical relevance for today virtual world.

The present thesis proposes a detailed study of the Friedrichstrasse Skyscraper, design realized by Mies van der Rohe in 1921/22 during the period between World Wars I and II, and consequently its subsequent the Glass Skyscraper. There are many reasons why this work has been chosen, but one of the most recent stands out above the rest. If its importance as a point of inflection in the initial development of a completely modern work is more than enough reason to make a detailed study, since it may be crucial for understanding the author’s beginnings in the Modern Movement. Its presence as images of works that belong in full right to the history of architecture -in our opinion- carry meanings that are as important for understanding these works and epoch, where the new languages of photography and cinema -in full swing-  begin to be questioned. But above all allows us to provide a parallel reflection on the problem of representation and the ultimately use of the image in architecture.
If the intention is to reflect on this contemporary fact using a paradigmatic example certified by history. Owing to the fact that it is on that frontier of the never-accomplished but spatially assumable, we will be forced to use a methodology that corresponds to the ambivalent interpretation produced by the reading of all media images, as a fluctuating combination of what is interpreted independently through the representation and meanings acquires along its historical journey. This dual condition will lead this essay to be structured in two clearly different and complementary blocks. The image of an architecture analyses the interpretation history and the author have given to the skyscrapers through its various publications and exhibitions, real space in which these imaginary architectures reside. Meanwhile The architecture of an image is presented more as a total immersion in the project world and the set of historical events that applied to the city, place, typology and technical processes gave rise to this architecture.
The historiographic tour will serve to establish a state of the question that reveals a divergent reading between the architect’s initial argument and the interpretation given by critics. Thus, if on one hand the architect’s discourse mentions an objective  formalization process far removed from all aesthetic speculation, where form is a mere result and not an end in itself. The particular triangular shapes of the former -and the sinuous shapes of the latter- will generate many aesthetic classifications, which have grown over time into artistic admiration laden with a profound and mysterious poetic and utopian load. On the other hand, meanwhile the more realistic descriptions of views will serve historians as examples of a modern and technological expression of glass and iron, the equal presence of a place loaded with clear phenomenological experimentation is ignored.
This series of doubts and contradictions, on what really views, plants and elevations, display requires a renewed reading for what they also are: expression of an the special needs of a very specific place and time. The analysis of the first one leads us to study the requirements of the plot’s own history and the conditions of the competition, as well as the response given by majority of participants. This reveals the importance of a common approach in terms of project and context attitude, certainly objective and pragmatic, far away from the  utopian character. In turn, the photographic nature on a set of views reveals a physical execution -still remains unexplained in full- where a number of important geometrical incoherences appear, what brings us to virtually rebuild the project and place.
The discovery of a precise trompe l’oeil hide in the images of the first project -never before revealed- causes a new reading of both projects full of spatial intentions of dislocation, rhythm and simultaneity. And opens the door to the understanding of a formalization process -tenaciously defended by its author- where form is not the end but the result of a new way of thinking space as something alive and ever changing, like a never fixed form. And the representation is understood as the subjective-spatial-expression of an architecture. Directly linked to the glass perception in the city and to the concerns of a related avant-garde, in which Hans Richter, Moholy Nagy and El Lissitzky seem to have served as examples and mutual motivation. In short, by means of investigating the true physical and symbolic nature of Mies representations, we found ourselves in the presence of views whose precise poetic goes beyond the form directly transcribed to give body to the architecture they represent. A final thought  of great critical relevance for today virtual world.