ABSTRACT
By tracing a sequence of plans that address the issue of nature and sublime, the definitive contributions made by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe clearly illuminated. Nature was addressed within the language of the free plan by imbuing decisions on form with the dialectics that are intrinsic to the subject of nature as it pertains to architecture. By emphasizing the search for a continuity of architectural memory in a new order, Mies's work resulted in a dramatic vision of nature transformed by the threat of the erasure of memory presented by the destruction of civilization as it unfolded in his time. The following sequence is one that Mies has developed over years: The Barcelona Pavilion; Semper's plan of the Caribbean hut; Le Corbusier's Heidi Weber Pavilion; Hejduk's Wall House diagram. However, the series of works included here must serve the purpose of examining how the philosophical address of nature was employed in the derivation of the free plan.
