LUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHE

• Born: March 27, 1886 - Aachen, Kingdom of Prussia,

German Empire

• Died: August 17, 1969 - Chicago, Illinois, USA

• German- American architect

• Worked in his Father’s stone-carving shop and at

several local design firms before he moved to Berlin.
• Widely regarded as one of the pioneers of modern
architecture.

• He renamed himself by adding “van der “ and his

mother’s surname “Rohe”.
 AT 15 YEARS OLD
• he was apprenticed to several local Aachen architects to
produce renderings for architectural ornaments.

AT 19 YEARS OLD
• he moved to Berlin and joined the studio of Bruno Paul

AT 20 YEARS OLD
• He recieved his first independent commision which is to
plan a house for a philosopher.
ALOIS RIEHL HOUSE
• Apprenticeship at the studio of Peter Behrens
from 1908 – 1912 working alongside Walter
Gropius and le Corbusier.

• at 1912, he opened his own office at berlin.

 “ skins and bones” architecture

load bearing wall

 “Less is more”

“God is in the details”

Barcelona Pavilion
1929

• As the German Pavilion for the

International Exposition held in Barcelona
that year.

• A reception for the Spanish king and the

German authorities during the exhibition.
• He joined Bauhaus design school as
their director of architecture, adopting and
developing their functionalist application
of simple geometric forms in the design of
useful objects.
Barcelona chair and Brno chair
• It closed three years later due to pressure from the Nazi
government.
• Mies emigrated to the USA in 1937 due
to the continued rise of the Nazis in his
home country. He became the head of
the Illinois Institute of Technology for 20
years.
 Farnsworth House

• Weekend retreat for Edith Farnsworth, a physician.

• skin-and-bones construction
• dissolves the distinction between interior and
exterior
• notoriously difficult to inhabit when privacy is
needed.
Seagram Building (1958)
New York, New York

• located in the heart of New York

City on Park Avenue.

• Mies' first tall office building

construction and embodies the
principles of modernism.

• 39 storey