Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Early Life and Education
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies on March 27, 1886, in Aachen, Germany. He was the son of a stonemason, and his early life was spent in a Catholic, working-class environment. He did not receive a formal architectural education but instead gained his training through apprenticeships and practical experience.
His father’s stonecutting business provided him with an early and intimate understanding of materials and craftsmanship. As a teenager, he worked on local construction sites, where he learned the trade of bricklaying. He also worked as a draftsman for a firm that specialized in stucco ornamentation, which gave him a keen eye for detail and proportion.
In 1905, at the age of nineteen, Mies moved to Berlin, which was then a major center of cultural and architectural innovation. He found work with an architect who specialized in timber construction, but his career took a decisive turn in 1908 when he joined the office of Peter Behrens, one of the most prominent and progressive architects in Germany.
The Behrens office was a crucible of modernism, and it was here that Mies met two other young architects who would also go on to become giants of the 20th century: Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier. Under Behrens, Mies was exposed to the latest theories of industrial design and the search for a new architectural style that would be appropriate for the modern age. He worked on major projects such as the AEG Turbine Factory, a landmark of industrial architecture.
Mies’s early work was influenced by the neoclassicism of Karl Friedrich Schinkel, a 19th-century German architect whom he greatly admired. His first independent commission, the Riehl House (1907), was a traditional, gabled house that showed little sign of the radical modernism to come. However, his time with Behrens and his study of the work of architects like Hendrik Petrus Berlage, a Dutch rationalist, began to push him in a new direction.
After serving in World War I, Mies returned to Berlin and joined the avant-garde artistic circles of the city. He became a member of the November Group and began to develop a more radical, experimental approach to architecture. It was during this period that he changed his name, adding his mother’s maiden name, “van der Rohe,” to give it a more aristocratic and distinguished ring.
Architectural Philosophy and Career
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s architectural philosophy is famously summed up in his two most famous aphorisms: “less is more” and “God is in the details.” These two phrases encapsulate his lifelong quest for an architecture of simplicity, clarity, and precision.
His career can be divided into two main periods: his work in Germany before he emigrated to the United States in 1938, and his later work in America.
In the 1920s, Mies emerged as one of the leading figures of the European avant-garde. His theoretical projects from this period, such as the Friedrichstrasse Skyscraper (1921) and the Glass Skyscraper (1922), were visionary proposals for all-glass towers that would have a profound influence on the development of the modern skyscraper.
He was a key figure in the development of the International Style, and his design for the German Pavilion at the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona is one of the most important buildings of the 20th century. The Barcelona Pavilion, with its free-flowing space, luxurious materials, and minimalist aesthetic, was a radical statement of a new kind of architecture.
In 1930, Mies was appointed director of the Bauhaus, the influential German school of art and design. He tried to steer the school away from its more political and expressionistic tendencies and focus on a more rigorous and disciplined approach to design. However, the school was forced to close in 1933 under pressure from the Nazi regime.
In 1938, Mies emigrated to the United States, where he became the head of the architecture school at the Armour Institute of Technology in Chicago (later the Illinois Institute of Technology, or IIT). This marked the beginning of the second phase of his career, during which he would have a profound impact on American architecture.
In his American work, Mies perfected his vision of a universal, rational architecture. He developed a structural system based on an exposed steel frame, which allowed for large, open, and flexible spaces. His buildings were characterized by their extreme simplicity, their precise detailing, and their use of industrial materials like steel and glass. He believed in creating a “universal space” that could be adapted to a variety of functions.
His philosophy was one of restraint and discipline. He believed that architecture should be an expression of its time and that the modern age, with its technology and industrialization, demanded an architecture of clarity and order. He rejected ornamentation and historical styles, seeking instead a kind of “almost nothing” that would achieve a timeless and monumental quality.
Notable and Famous Works
Mies van der Rohe’s body of work is characterized by its consistency and its relentless pursuit of architectural perfection.
The Barcelona Pavilion (1929) in Barcelona, Spain, was designed as the German Pavilion for the International Exposition. It was a temporary structure that was dismantled after the fair, but it was so influential that it was reconstructed in the 1980s. The pavilion is a masterpiece of spatial composition, with a free-flowing plan, planes of glass, marble, and travertine, and the iconic Barcelona chair, which Mies designed specifically for the building.
The Tugendhat House (1930) in Brno, Czech Republic, is one of Mies’s most important residential works. It is a luxurious, open-plan house built on a steel frame, with a free-flowing living space that is divided by a freestanding onyx wall. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The Seagram Building (1958) in New York City, which Mies designed with Philip Johnson, is one of the most elegant and influential skyscrapers ever built. It is a 38-story bronze and glass tower that is set back from the street on a large public plaza. Its minimalist aesthetic and its emphasis on structural expression set a new standard for corporate architecture.
The Farnsworth House (1951) in Plano, Illinois, is a radical statement of minimalist residential design. It is a simple glass box, with a floor and a roof slab supported by an exposed steel frame. The house is completely transparent, blurring the boundary between inside and outside.
The campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago, for which Mies designed the master plan and several buildings in the 1940s and 1950s, is a powerful expression of his architectural vision. The buildings, such as Crown Hall (1956), the home of the College of Architecture, are all based on an exposed steel frame and a modular grid, creating a unified and rational campus environment.
860-880 Lake Shore Drive (1951) in Chicago are two high-rise apartment towers that are among the most important examples of modernist residential architecture. Their exposed steel frames and glass curtain walls had a profound influence on the design of high-rise buildings around the world.
Awards, Honors, and Legacy
Mies van der Rohe received numerous awards and honors, including the Royal Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1959, the AIA Gold Medal in 1960, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963.
His legacy is immense. He was one of the most important and influential architects of the 20th century, and his “less is more” philosophy has had a profound and lasting impact on architecture and design. The glass and steel skyscraper, which is a ubiquitous feature of the modern city, is largely his creation.
His influence on architectural education was also significant. As the director of the Bauhaus and later as the head of the architecture school at IIT, he trained a generation of architects in his rigorous and disciplined approach to design. The “Miesian” style, with its emphasis on structure, clarity, and precision, became a dominant force in American architecture in the mid-20th century.
While his work has sometimes been criticized for its austerity and for its perceived lack of concern for context, it has also been celebrated for its elegance, its timelessness, and its intellectual rigor. He was an architect who sought to create a new language of architecture for the modern age, and his work continues to be studied and admired for its purity, its clarity, and its profound beauty. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe died on August 17, 1969.