Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

One of the leading lights of modernist architecture, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe created a body of work—ranging from tubular steel furniture to iconic office buildings—that influenced generations of architects worldwide. From domestic spaces like the Villa Tugendhat in the Czech Republic to large, elaborate office towers like New York’s Seagram Building, he imbued his buildings with a fluid spatial harmony reflective of his oft-quoted aphorism, “less is more.” While this quote may seem to reflect an overriding interest in achieving minimalist perfection, his passion for rich materials, surfaces, and texture reveals a creative mind equally preoccupied with the minutiae of architectural space, or, as in another quote attributed to him: “God is in the details”.
Mies’s career took off in the fertile atmosphere of Berlin after the First World War, where leading artists and intellectuals were forming a community that would draw the brightest talents from across Europe. His visionary submission for the 1921 Friedrichstrasse skyscraper competition, while not a winner, was an unprecedented embrace of the new materials of steel and glass that later defined modernist architecture. As the decade progressed, he received larger and more prominent commissions, culminating in the offer to design the German pavilion for the 1929 World’s Fair in Barcelona. The small structure he built, with its flowing spaces, rich marble walls, and custom-designed furniture was an enormous success. It was around this time that Mies formed a highly fruitful partnership with the architect-designer Lilly Reich, with whom he collaborated on numerous projects. Their partnership lasted until his emigration to the United States in 1938.
Nearly as important as the legacy of his buildings is Mies’s impact as a teacher of architecture. In Germany, he served as the final director of the influential Bauhaus school until its closing under pressure from the Nazis in 1933. Shortly after his arrival in the United States, he was offered the directorship of the Armour Institute in Chicago (later renamed the Illinois Institute of Technology), where he shaped a curriculum that influenced a generation of American architects.
America afforded Mies opportunities to work on a far larger scale than he had in Germany, as evidenced by the collection of sleek, glass-skinned office and apartment towers that populate cities across North America. Though in the period after his death many architects rejected his strict formalism in favor of the more eclectic language of postmodernism, his legacy continues to inform the teaching and practice of architecture today.
Introduction by Paul Galloway, Collection Specialist, Department of Architecture and Design, 2016
- Introduction
- Ludwig Mies van der Rohe ( MEESS; German: [miːs]; born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies; March 27, 1886 – August 17, 1969) was a German-American architect. He was commonly referred to as Mies, his surname. Along with Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Frank Lloyd Wright, he is regarded as one of the pioneers of modernist architecture. Mies was the last director of the Bauhaus, a ground-breaking school of modern art, design and architecture. After Nazism's rise to power, with its strong opposition to modernism (leading to the closing of the Bauhaus itself), Mies emigrated to the United States. He accepted the position to head the architecture school at the Armour Institute of Technology (later the Illinois Institute of Technology), in Chicago. Mies sought to establish his own particular architectural style that could represent modern times just as Classical and Gothic did for their own eras. He created his own twentieth-century architectural style, stated with extreme clarity and simplicity. His mature buildings made use of modern materials such as industrial steel and plate glass to define interior spaces, as also conducted by other modernist architects in the 1920s and 1930s such as Richard Neutra. Mies strove toward an architecture with a minimal framework of structural order balanced against the implied freedom of unobstructed free-flowing open space. He called his buildings "skin and bones" architecture. He sought an objective approach that would guide the creative process of architectural design, but was always concerned with expressing the spirit of the modern era. He is often associated with his fondness for the aphorisms, "less is more" and "God is in the details".
- Wikidata
- Q41508
- Introduction
- Born 27 March 1886. Mies was one of the leading figures of Modernist architecture. He spent the early years of his career in Germany, working for various construction firms and eventually opening his own architecture studio in Berlin. In 1938 Mies moved to Chicago to established the department of architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology (then known as the Armour Institute), and eventually, he designed its new campus while designing buildings for his architecture practice. American architect, born in Germany.
- Nationalities
- German, American
- Gender
- Male
- Roles
- Artist, Architect, Designer, Teacher, Furniture Designer
- Names
- Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig Mies, Liudvig Mis van der Rohe, Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe, Li︠u︡dvig Mis van der Roė
- Ulan
- 500006293
Exhibitions
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Engineer, Agitator, Constructor: The Artist Reinvented
Through Apr 10
MoMA
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Taking a Thread for a Walk
Oct 21, 2019–Jan 10, 2021
MoMA
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511: The Vertical City
Oct 21, 2019–Oct 12, 2020
MoMA
Collection gallery
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513: Design for Modern Life
Ongoing
MoMA
Collection gallery
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519: Architecture for Modern Art
Ongoing
MoMA
Collection gallery
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe has
68 exhibitionsonline.
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Bismarck Monument Project, Bingen, Germany, Elevation 1910
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Bismarck Monument Project, Bingen, Germany (Perspective) 1910
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Bismarck Monument, project, Bingen, Germany, Perspective view of courtyard 1910
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Werner House, Berlin-Zehlendorf, Germany, Four elevations 1913
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Werner House, Berlin-Zehlendorf, Germany (Four elevations, section) 1913
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Werner House, Berlin-Zehlendorf, Germany, Four plans 1913
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Werner House, Berlin-Zehlendorf, Germany, Four elevations, section 1913
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Werner House, Berlin-Zehlendorf, Germany (Basement plan) 1913
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Werner House, Berlin-Zehlendorf, Germany (Second floor and attic plans) 1913
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Werner House, Berlin-Zehlendorf, Germany (Ground floor plan) 1913
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Kröller-Müller Villa Project, Wassenaar, The Netherlands (Sketch plan of ground floor) 1912-1913
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Urbig House, Potsdam-Neubabelsberg, Germany (Sections, staircase) 1915-1917
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Urbig House, Potsdam-Neubabelsberg, Germany (Elevations, sections. Chimney details.) 1915-1917
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Friedrichstrasse Skyscraper Project, Berlin-Mitte, Germany 1921
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Friedrichstrasse Skyscraper Project, Berlin-Mitte, Germany (Floor plan) 1921
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Friedrichstrasse Skyscraper Project, Berlin-Mitte, Germany (Typical floor plan) 1921
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Friedrichstrasse Skyscraper Project, Berlin-Mitte, Germany (Floor plan) 1921
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Friedrichstrasse Skyscraper Project, Berlin-Mitte, Germany (Perspective) 1921
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Friedrichstrasse Skyscraper Project, Berlin-Mitte, Germany (Floor plan) 1921
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Friedrichstrasse Skyscraper Project, Berlin-Mitte, Germany (Exterior perspective from north) 1921
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Friedrichstrasse Skyscraper Project, Berlin-Mitte, Germany (Elevation study) 1921
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Friedrichstrasse Skyscraper, project, Berlin-Mitte, Germany, Urban context model 1921 (model 2001)
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Glass Skyscraper Project (Floor plan) 1922
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Glass Skyscraper, project 1922
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Glass Skyscraper Project (Floorplan) 1922
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Glass Skyscraper project (Elevation study) 1922
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Glass Skyscraper, project, no intended site known 1922 (model 1985)
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Glass Skyscraper project (View of lost model) 1922
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Concrete Office Building, project, Berlin, Germany (Letter with view of building) 1923
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Concrete Country House Project (Perspective) 1923
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Concrete Office Building Project, Berlin, Germany (Exterior perspective) 1923
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Eichstaedt House, Berlin-Nikolassee, Germany, Landscape model 1921–1923 (model 2001)
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Hans Richter, El Lissitzky, Werner Graeff, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Frederick Kiesler G: Material zur elementaren Gestaltung (Material for Elementary Construction) no.1, July 1923 1923
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Hans Richter, Werner Graeff, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe G: Material zur elementaren Gestaltung (Material for Elementary Construction) no.2, September 1923 1923
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Hans Richter, Werner Graeff, Frederick Kiesler, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe G: Zeitschrift für elementare Gestaltung (Journal for Elementary Construction) no.3, June 1924 1924
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Eliat House Project, Potsdam-Nedlitz, Germany, Perspective 1925
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Monument to the November Revolution, Berlin-Lichtenberg, Germany, (Lettering study) 1926
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Monument to the November Revolution, Berlin-Lichtenberg, Germany, (Lettering study) 1926
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Monument to the November Revolution, Berlin-Lichtenberg, Germany, Site plan, section and elevation, 1926
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Monument to the November Revolution, Berlin-Lichtenberg, Germany, (Elevation) 1926
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Monument to the November Revolution, Berlin-Lichtenberg, Germany (Elevation, lettering study) 1926
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Monument to the November Revolution, Berlin-Lichtenberg, Germany (Elevation) 1926
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Monument to the November Revolution, Berlin-Lichtenberg, Germany, Lettering study 1926
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Weissenhof Housing Colony Master Plan, "The Dwelling," Stuttgart, Germany, Site elevation study from east 1926
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Lilly Reich Die Wohnung, Weissenhofsiedlung Werkbund Exposition, Stuttgart, Germany (Plan for the Glass Industry Exhibit) 1926
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Weissenhof Apartment House, "The Dwelling" Exhibition, Stuttgart, Germany (Upper floor plan, interior perspectives) 1926
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Weissenhof Apartment House, "The Dwelling" Exhibition, Stuttgart, Germany (First, second and third floor plan) 1926
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Weissenhof Apartment House, "The Dwelling" Exhibition, Stuttgart, Germany (Upper floor plan) 1926
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