Any discussion of architecture by Mies van der Rohe quickly turns to materials. Steel, glass, marble, stone - clean lines and hard edges are used to create purity of concept and image.

The Neue National Gallery in Berlin (1963 - 1968) is perhaps the ultimate example of Mies’ quest for his concept of “universal space”. As architecture it has become iconic, as a space for showing art it is at best problematic - form before function? Mies himself states, “It is such a huge hall that of course it means great difficulties for the exhibiting of art. I am fully aware of that. But it has so much potential that I simply cannot take those difficulties into account.”

During a recent refurbishment by David Chipperfield Architects (2012 - 2021) some of its deeper faults were exposed once the surface layers were removed, as Chipperfield describes “it was as if the surface was holding everything together.” For an architect who espoused truth to materials some of those surfaces were paper thin.

Upon completion it was realised that in order for the space to function as a gallery some form of diffusion would be required to protect works of art from sunlight coming through the full height glass walls. This was one compromise that Mies was persuaded to accept but only on the proviso that “it must under no circumstances impair the structural clarity and must be an independent addition to the building.”

Hence the curtain, the only soft material in the space, is introduced as a diaphanous mesh around the perimeter. Rarely included in official photographs for fear of diluting the image, the curtain responds to the most fundamental architectural element of all - light. The curtain catches the light whilst all the other materials around it reflect. As a material it is organic, ephemeral, translucent, insubstantial; and yet it practically holds the building up by enabling it to function as an art gallery.