essay presented at the international conference "Mies Van Der Rohe. The Architecture of the city".
On how Mies built the image, and more specifically the architectural image, we could answer indirectly or directly. But any response presupposes the need to use a broad "image theory", which could to make it a philosophy of it, diverting our main goal: to identify the symbolic value of the architectural image, and the efficacy of it as an "extrinsic image" (which gives to see); taking part in a preponderant way to the circuit of the images that marked character and face to the city, but above all penetrated in the collective imaginary.
Mies van der Rohe had the masterful ability to ensure that, the images of architectural artifacts, could make themselves 'bearer' from other characters that does not concern more specifically the single exact representation of the statutes of architecture.