Ludwig Mies van der Rohe | |
---|---|
Born |
Maria Ludwig Michael Mies March 27, 1886 Aachen, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire |
Died | August 17, 1969 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
(aged 83)
Nationality | German (1886–1944), American (1944–1969) |
Occupation | Architect |
Spouse(s) | Adele Auguste (Ada) Bruhn (1913–1918) (separated) |
Children | 4 |
Awards |
Pour le Mérite (1959) Royal Gold Medal (1959) AIA Gold Medal (1960) Presidential Medal of Freedom (1963) |
Buildings |
Barcelona Pavilion Tugendhat House Crown Hall Farnsworth House 860–880 Lake Shore Drive Seagram Building New National Gallery Toronto-Dominion Centre Westmount Square |
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (/miːs/ MEES; German: [miːs]; born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies; March 27, 1886 – August 17, 1969) was a German-American architect. He is commonly referred to and was addressed as Mies, his surname. Along with Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Frank Lloyd Wright, he is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of modernist architecture.
Mies, like many of his post-World War I contemporaries, sought to establish a new architectural style that could represent modern times just as Classical and Gothic did for their own eras. He created an influential 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. He 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 he was always concerned with expressing the spirit of the modern era. He is often associated with his quotation of the aphorisms, "less is more" and "God is in the details".
Mies was born March 27, 1886 in Aachen, Germany. He worked in his father's stone carving shop and at several local design firms before he moved to Berlin, where he joined the office of interior designer Bruno Paul. He began his architectural career as an apprentice at the studio of Peter Behrens from 1908 to 1912, where he was exposed to the current design theories and to progressive German culture, working alongside Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius, who was later also involved in the development of the Bauhaus. Mies served as construction manager of the Embassy of the German Empire in Saint Petersburg under Behrens.