Mies van der Rohe
Mansion House Square Model Buildings
Conservation & Restoration

There are 16 highly detailed existing buildings surrounding the Mies Van Der Rohe, Mansion House Square project.

These detailed 1:96 Scale buildings where produced in the 1980’s over many years. These buildings replaced the basic buildings which were left over from the original 1960’s model.

The original 1960’s model buildings had been adapted to fit the newly produced model base at the binging of 1980. However these previous buildings were very inaccurate. Therefore a decision was taken by the project architect Peter Carter and Lord Palumbo to update them to the detail and quality of the new Mies’s glass tower.

The exisiting buildings development can be clearly seen in images originally taken by John Donat (employed as official project photographer). These images show the Mies Van Der Rohe, Mansion House Square models continual evolution. This included the introduction of more architectural detailing, street furniture, signage and a fabulous solid gold Lord Mayour's coach and horses.

The most famous of these existing buildings is The Midland Bank designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1924. Fortunately Simon Morris (model conservator) had kept all his diaries from the time he had worked on the project, spanning many years during the models production. This provided invaluable information on the project timeline to the RIBA researchers. The diaries made it possible to accurately date the Midland Bank and two of the other existing buildings manufacture to April 1981.

The existing model buildings were generally in good condition. However some had suffered damage and most were very dirty. Whilst some of the others suffered from the same chalky white residue which was found on the Mansion House Square tower model.  

Due to the level of moisture and temperature damage present on the Mansion House Square model base prior to restoration. The RIBA wanted reassurance that all the existing buildings would still fit perfectly the model bases various contours. So it was agreed to carry out a dress rehearsal or test setup of the Mies’s Tower and all existing buildings at the RIBA storage facility.

Mies van der Rohe - Midland Bank (Sir Edwin Lutyens)repairs, cleaning part of the model restoration and conservation works.

To put this in to context, it must be remembered that some of the pavements had come loose and needed to be reattached. Therefore even the slightest change in position and thickness of new adhesive could have potentially changed the fit between model base and existing buildings.

Therefore once each existing building had been restored it was carefully offered up to check its profile fitted perfectly the contours of the model base. Due to the way the restoration had been meticulously approached all 16 existing buildings fitted perfectly, to the RIBA’s great relief.

Mies van der Rohe - Mansion House Square: Model Repairs & Cleaning forming part of the Restoration and Conservation Works.

Once each exisiting building had been cleaned, repaired and restored it was covered with conservation acid free tissue paper.

This allowed each of the bespoke packing cases to be cleaned and prepared. The existing buildings were then repacked ready for transportation to the RIBA exhibition in London.

Mies van der Rohe Architectural Model
Restoration Articles

History of the Mies van der Rohe Mansion House Square - Part 1 >>

Mansion House Square Model Restoration & Conservation - Part 2 >>

Mies van der Rohe - Mansion House Square Tower - Part 3 >>

Mies van der Rohe - Mansion House Square Shopping Concourse - Part 4 >>

Mies van der Rohe - Architectural Model Trees - Part 6 >>

James Stirling No 1 Poultry City of London Model - Part 7 >>