Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886

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Biography

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was a German and American architect, academic, and interior designer. He was commonly referred to as Mies, his surname. He is regarded as one of the pioneers of modern architecture.

Timeline

The story of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, told in moments.

1886 Birth

Born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies in Aachen, Germany. His father was a stonemason. No formal architectural education. He learned by working in his father's shop, cutting and laying stone. He added "van der Rohe" later. Sounded better.

Did your father's stonework give you respect for materials? Why add 'van der Rohe' -- was it vanity or aspiration? Was learning by cutting stone a better education than any school?

1929 Event

Designs the Barcelona Pavilion for the International Exposition. Glass, marble, chrome, water. No walls where you'd expect them. It's meant to be temporary. They tear it down after six months. It's rebuilt in 1986 because nobody can stop talking about it.

Was the Barcelona Pavilion designed to be permanent in spirit? What does it mean that they rebuilt it 57 years later? How do glass, marble, and chrome replace walls?

1938 Life

Emigrates to the United States after the Nazis close the Bauhaus, where he'd been the last director. Takes over the architecture school at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. Redesigns the entire campus. "Less is more" becomes his motto and eventually a cliche.

Did 'less is more' feel like a motto or a cliche when you said it? Was emigrating after the Nazis closed the Bauhaus escape or exile? Did redesigning IIT's entire campus feel like starting over?

1958 Event

Completes the Seagram Building on Park Avenue, New York. Bronze and amber glass, 38 stories, set back from the street with an open plaza. He pays for the bronze himself when the budget runs short. It becomes the template for every corporate office tower built in the next three decades.

Why pay for the bronze yourself when the budget ran short? Did the Seagram Building become the template for every office tower? Was setting it back with a plaza an act of generosity?

1969 Death

Dies in Chicago at 83. Esophageal cancer. His buildings define skylines in a dozen countries. The Barcelona chair he designed for a single pavilion is still in production, still in every architect's office, still expensive.

Is the Barcelona chair still being made because of design or nostalgia? Did your buildings defining skylines in a dozen countries feel like enough? Was 'less is more' your final word?

In Their Own Words (1)

God is in the details.

"On restraint in Design" in The New York Herald Tribune (28 June 1959), 1959

Artifacts (12)

Mies Reconsidered: His Career, Legacy, and Disciples

"The exhibition 'The unknown Mies van der Rohe and his disciples of Modernism' was held at the Art Institute of Chicago from August 22 to October 5, 1986"--Title page verso.

1986

Works Read Talk

Mies Van Der Rohe: European Works

Includes papers read at the association's annual meeting.

1986

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West meets East

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe reigns as one of the most richly complex figures in architecture's pantheon of classical modernists. Buildings such as his Barcelona Pavilion and New York City's Seagram...

1996

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Mies in America

"Mies in America offers readers a deeper immersion into Mies's thought than has been attempted before. Venturing a more complex response than the familiar reading of Mies as a grand master of...

2001

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Difficult Art of the Simple

«Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886–1969) est déjà une figure dominante de sa profession en Allemagne lorsqu’en 1938, dans la cinquantaine, il émigre aux États-Unis. Cette introduction à la carrière...

2001

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Mies in Berlin

'Mies in Berlin' is an important reconsideration of a key figure of the modern movement. It offers an in depth look at the continuous and complex evolution of the architect's design methods, his...

2002

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Conversations with Mies Van Der Rohe

"The thirty years modernist legend Mies van der Rohe spent working in America arguably reflect his most consistent and mature efforts toward achieving his goal: a new architecture for the twentieth...

2008

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Mies Van Der Rohe

German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is, without doubt, one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture. The modern city, with its towers of glass and steel, can be at least in part...

2010

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Mies Van Der Rohe

1972

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The Mies Van Der Rohe Archive

1986

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Mies Van Der Rohe: Less is More

1986

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The Farnsworth House

1997

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