LUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHE

(1886-1969)
 BIOGRAPHICAL DATA
  March 27 1886 Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was born in Aachen, Germany
 · Ludwig began his career in his family stone-carving business in Germany
 · He never received any formal architectural training, but when he was a
teenager he worked as a draftsman for a stucco-decorating firm.
 · At the age of 19 while moving to Berlin, he found work in the office of
architect and furniture designer Bruno Paul
 · From 1908-1912 he worked with industrial architect Peter Behrens.
 · In 1912, Mies van der Rohe opened his own practice in Berlin and studied
the architecture of the Prussian Karl Friedrich Schinkel and Frank Lloyd Wright
 · 1n 1913 Mies got married
 · After World War I, he began studying the skyscraper and designed two
innovative steel-framed towers encased in glass. One of them was the
Friedrichstrasse skyscraper, designed in 1921 for a competition.
 · In 1921, when his marriage ended, he changed his name, adding the Dutch 'van
der' and his mother’s maiden name, 'Rohe'. Ludwig Mies became Ludwig Mies van
der Rohe.
 · In the 1920’s he was active in a number of the Berlin avant-garde circles (the
magazine 'G' and organizations such as the 'novembergruppe', 'zehner ring', and
'arbeitsrat für kunst') that supported modern art and architecture along with artists
 · From 1926-1930 he was the artistic director of the Werkbund-
sponsored Weissenhof project, a model-housing colony in Stuttgart.
 · Mies began working with Lilly Reich, who remained his collaborator
and companion for more than ten years.
 · In 1930, Mies met New York architect Philip Johnson, who included
several of his projects in MoMA’s first architecture exhibition held in 1932,
'modern
architecture: international exhibition', thanks to which Mies’s work began to
be known in the U.S.
 · 1930-1933 he was director of the Bauhaus school until its disbandment.
 · In the 30s, none of his designs were built due to the sweeping economic
and political changes overtaking Germany.
 · 1937 he moved to the United States.
 · From 1938-1958 he was head of the architecture department at the
Armour Institute of Technology, Chicago
 · In the 40s, was asked to design a new campus for the school, a project in
which he continued to refine his steel-and-glass style.
 · He had also formed a new relationship with Chicago artist Lora Marx
that would last for the rest of his life.
 By 1944, he had become an American citizen and was well established
professionally.
 · In the 50s he continued to develop his concept of open, flexible space on
a much larger scale and realized his dream of building a glass skyscraper.
 · In 1959 he achieved the 'orden pour le merite' award (Germany)
 · In 1960 he received the AIA Gold Metal Award
 · In 1963 the 'presidential medal of freedom' (USA).
 · August 17 1969 Mies van der Rohe died in Chicago, Illinois.
 SELECTED PROJECTS

 · 1913: Kroller Muller Villa

 · 1921: Friedrichstratte skyscraper
 · 1924: Brick Country House
 · 1926: Rosa Luxemburg Monument
 · 1927: Weissenhof Apartments, Stuttgart, Germany
 · 1928: Krefeld House, Krefeld, Germany
 · 1929: Barcelona Pavilion, Spain
 · 1930: Tugendhat House, Brno, Czech Republic
 · 1939: Illinois Institute of Technology
 · 1950: Farnsworth House, Plano, Illinois
 · 1951: Lake Shore Drive Apartments, Chicago
 · 1956: Crown Hall, Chicago
 · 1958: Seagram Building, New York
 · 1968: New National Gallery, Berlin, Germany
 THEORIES AND IDEALOGIES
 · Under Behrens' influence, Mies developed a design approach based on
advanced structural techniques and Prussian Classicism.
 · He also developed sympathy for the aesthetic credos of both Russian
Constructivism and the Dutch De Stijl group, thus removing himself from the
mass production approach.
 · He borrowed from the post and lintel construction of Karl Friedrich
Schinkel for his designs in steel and glass.
 · Three main influences seen in Mies’ work are:
 1. Berlage brick tradition and the dictum “NOTHING SHOULD BE
BUILT THAT IS NOT CLEARLY CONSTRUCTED”
 2. Frank Lloyd Wright’s horizontal profiles
 3. Kasimir Malevich’s Suprematism
 · Mies van der Rohe taught his taught students at IIT to build first with
wood, then stone, and then brick before progressing to concrete and steel. He
believed that architects must completely understand their materials before
they can design.
 · He followed order, repose, symmetry and discipline in his earlier
designs.
·
 · His philosophy that “LESS IS MORE" became a guiding principle for
architects in the mid-twentieth century. It took the Arts and Crafts movement
forward in a belief system directly related to the flow of space between inside
and outside.
 · Mies always tried through his designs to “EXPRESS THE
TECHNOLOGY OF THE TIMES" and has successfully done so.
 · Mies attitude towards expressing technology further implies the
engineering component, volume or spatial system to its essence. In buildings
such as the Barcelona pavilion or the Farnsworth house of 20 years later,
which has become the iconic Miesian models of such minimalist reduction,
this credo is evident at every level; from the way materials are joined, through
space planning to furniture design.
 · Mies van der Rohe’s famous dictum "less is more" is for modernists a
defining statement and for minimalists it has become a kind of mantra to be
repeated daily as they peruse their quest to strip away unwanted details
 · Object of all designs is to define the true essence of any given piece,
whether it be a piece of cutlery, a gallery space or a house in the landscape.
·
 · Mies attempted to create contemplative, neutral spaces through an
architecture based on material honesty and structural integrity. Over the last
twenty years of his life, Mies achieved his vision of a monumental 'skin and
bone' architecture.
 · Mies van der Rohe was not the first architect to practice simplicity in
design, but he carried the ideals of rationalism and minimalism to new levels.
His glass-walled Farnsworth House near Chicago stirred controversy and legal
battles. His bronze and glass Seagram Building in New York City is
considered America's first glass skyscraper. Skyscrapers around the world are
modeled after designs by Mies van der Rohe.
 FAMOUS QUOTES

 · “Object of all designs is to define the true essence

of any given piece, whether it be a piece of cutlery, a
gallery space or a house in the landscape.”
 · He said, “I consider the industrialization of building
to be the main concern of our times. If we succeed with
this industrialization, consequently the social,
economical, technological and artistic questions will be
easily solved.”
 · “Architecture is the will of the age conceived in
spatial terms. Living, changing, new ….”
BARCELONA PAVILION

 · In 1927 he designed one of

his most famous buildings,
Barcelona pavilion for which he
also designed the famous chrome
and leather 'Barcelona chair',
 · Had a flat roof supported by
columns.
 · The building is made of
green Tinian marble, travertine,
chrome steel and tinted plate
glasses.
 · The pavilion’s internal walls,
made of glass and marble, could be
moved around as they did not
support the structure.
BARCELONA PAVILION

 · The exterior is of steel frame

with glass and polished stone
Mediterranean
 · Like a Greek temple, the
pavilion rests on a podium, in this
case of travertine and placed along
side a pool
 · The concept of fluid space
with a seamless flow between
indoors and outdoors was further
explored
 · The building was demolished in1930 and
rebuilt in 1981 as a exhibition building
 · At the end of the courtyard is a sculpture
reflecting classicism. known as “the dancer”.
 · The famous Barcelona chairs were
deigned specially for the pavilion
BRICK COUNTRY HOUSE

 · With a view towards

universality Mies made open
plans by erecting free standing
walls that defined spaces
without enclosing them
 · He himself identified
parts of the house only as
“living spaces” and “service
spaces”.
WEISSENHOF ESTATE APARTMENT BUILDING

 · These were the low-cost

apartments in the International
Style
 · The steel skeleton structure
allowed apartment plans to be
changed by the residents.
 · His approach to design,
whether it was on large scale or on
small scale remained the same
throughout his career.
 · Symmetrical composition
and regularity of the building.
  Exterior façade is
monotonous but the apartments
vary in plan.
 · The exterior walls of the
three-story apartment block
consisted of masonry infill covered
by smooth stucco, large windows,
and glass doors; floors and roof
were hollow block between joists.
 · The steel frame was crucial
to Mies's architectural vision in this
project
 · It enabled him to limit the
use of solid walls to separations
between apartments, to introduce
moveable partition walls, and to
extensively open the facades with
glass.
 TUGENDHAT HOUSE
 · Built on a steeply sloping site
overlooking the city of Brno, the house
adapted the spatial concept of the
Barcelona pavilion to a domestic
programme.
 · It was a combination of Wrights
Robie House and Schinkel Italianate
Villa
 · Internal spaces opened up in a
well-controlled manner.
 · The curved walls of frosted glass
along the entrance hallway lets in light
and marks the staircase to a lower level.
 · The garden elevation with its long
transparent wall of glass is the organizing
feature of the design.
 · The elegant living and dining areas
are separated by an onyx partition,
retaining the sense of one large space.
 · The neutral colours of interiors are
a strong contrast to the chrome columns
and glass.
 · Longer side faces the city
and the shorter side a conservatory
faced in large sheets of plate glass.
 · The floor is of white
linoleum, the rug white wool. The
curtains are of black and natural
raw silk and white velvet.
 · Behind the dining room a
double glass partition serves as a
light source for the interior space,
as in the Barcelona design.
 · The hillside site suggested a
two-story scheme with the entry
and bedrooms above with the main
floor below. Across the living and
dining areas the entire wall is of
glass. Two of these large panes
slide down into pockets as in an
automobile window.
 · At one end the glass is
doubled to provide a narrow
conservatory running the depth of
the plan.
TUGENDHAT HOUSE
 ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

 · The early scheme for the campus was extended and changed over the
years but retained the grid and the general layout.
 · Unit grid was of 7.3m *7.3m and was used to determine the modular
height of the interiors, ensuring an architectural.
 · The low-rise rectangular steel framed blocks are staggered in plane to
define a dynamic sequence of spaces.
 · The strips of grass and walkways create vistas, and connect different
parts of the campus.
 · Consists of Minerals and Metals Research Building, Alumni Memorial
Hall, Chemistry building and Crown Hall.
CROWN HALL
 · The glass box with Mies uninterrupted
“universal space” is suspended from steel
trusses and raised of the ground, received by
a grand staircase.
 · The open plan allows for great
flexibility
 · Has an exposed steel frame and roof is
suspended from spanning I-beams.
 · The buildings proportions, symmetry,
clearly expressed structure; its floating
entrance stairs and precise detailing are
characteristics of the architect’s modern
expressions of classical values.
 · The roof is suspended from the
underside of four steel plate girders which in
turn are carried by eight exterior steel
columns.
 These columns are spaced 60 feet
apart with the roof cantilevered 20
feet at each end.
 · Crown Hall, in which
architecture, city planning, and
design are taught, has a
symmetrical plan about its short
axis. Freestanding partitions at the
height of the window muntins
partially subdivide the space.
 · Only two enclosed service
ducts interrupt the ceiling. A pair of
interior stairways leads to a
basement level used for workshops,
offices, toilet rooms, and
mechanical equipment. ...Natural
ventilation is provided by louvers
at floor level.
 LAKE SHORE DRIVE APARTMENTS

 · The steel and glass twin

 towers derive their forms from the
modular grid system.
 · At the core of each building
is a service shaft while the
apartments are on the perimeter.
 · The triangular site over looks
the lake, giving each apartment
drametic views of the land scape.
 · I–Beams, shiny black and
glass towers remain as modern
today as when built.
 · The scheme consists of two
identical 26-story towers placed 46
feet apart with their long axes set
perpendicular to each other.
 The steel skeletal frame is based on
a 21-foot grid and is clearly
expressed in the elevations,
indicated by black-painted steel
sheets covering the fireproofed
columns and beams. The rigorous
consistency of the design is seen in
the uniform treatment of each
building face regardless of
orientation.
 · Each bay is subdivided into
four window units by three wide-
flange steel mullions. Within these
divisions aluminum-framed floor-
to- ceiling windows are set. The
significance of this work is a
pioneer curtain-wall expression as
well as a fulfillment of the all-glass
skyscraper schemes proposed by
Mies three decades earlier.
SEAGRAM BUILDING

 · Building is 38 stories
high and placed 27 m back from
the street behind a deep plaza.
 · Plaza has a low wall and
a number of pools.
 · Seagram Building is in a
city already crowded with
skyscrapers of unbroken height
of bronze and dark glass
juxtaposed to a granite-paved
plaza below.
 · The siting of the building
on Park Avenue, an indulgence
in open space unprecedented in
midtown Manhattan real estate,
has given that building an aura
of special domain.
 · The commercial office
building has been made like a
monument which is unequal in
the civic and religious
architecture of our time.
 · The use of extruded
bronze mullions and bronze
spandrels together with a dark
amber-tinted glass has unified
the surface with color.
 · The positioning of the
Seagram Building on the site
and its additive forms at the
rear, which visually tie the
building to adjacent structures,
make for a frontal-oriented
composition. The tower is no
longer an isolated form. It
addresses itself to the context of
the city."
FRIEDRICHSTRASSE,BERLIN
 · He has rendered the glass as a
complex reflective surface, which would
be constantly, subjected to
transformation under the impact of light.
 · Prismatic form has been used to
best fit the triangular site.
 · Glass walls have been placed
slightly at an angle to break the
monotony.
 · The important thing was the play
of reflections and not of light and
shadow as in ordinary buildings.
 · The curves of the building are
governed by: sufficient illumination of
interiors, the massing of the building
from the road and play of reflection. (By
the model he proved that cal. of light
and shad do not help in designing of
bldgs.)
FARNSWORTH HOUSE
 · In this period he designed
one of his most famous
buildings, a small weekend
retreat outside Chicago.
 · It is a transparent box
framed by eight exterior steel
columns.
 · It is one of the most
radically minimalist houses
ever designed.
 · Its interior, a single room,
is subdivided by partitions and
completely enclosed in glass.
 · The seminal glass
pavilion synthesizes Mies’ ideas
at the domestic level.
 · In plan, the planes of the unit and the deck slide past each other
in a painterly composition.
 · The revolutionary design though impractical design has been
one of the most admired designs of his.
 NEW NATIONAL GALLERY

 · In 1962, his career came full-

circle when he was invited to
design the 'new national gallery' in
Berlin.
 · His design for this building
achieved his long-held vision of an
exposed steel structure that directly
connected interior space to the
landscape.
 · He returned to Berlin several
times while the gallery was under
construction, but was unable to
attend the opening in 1968.
 · It employs a two-way roof
structure supported along the
perimeter on eight columns.
 · The building defines large
open spaces on an elevated
platform.
·
 · The great room would
house temporary exhibitions
while the permanent collection
together with administrative
offices and auxiliary services
would be lodged in the podium,
where they would not violate
the space above.
 · Once completed, the hall,
walled totally in glass,
measured 166 feet square, with
a 26-foot height, comprising an
area of 27,000 square feet.
 · The 213-foot-square roof,
the first rigid plate ever
executed, was constructed in
the form of an orthogonal grid
of web girders 6 feet deep
separated at 12-foot intervals.
 CHICAGO CENVENTION HALL

 · In this un built project the

horizontal “universal” clear-
span box is taken to its
conclusion.
 · Working with three IIT
graduate students and his
favourite engineer Frank
Kornacker, Mies’ monumental
structure was not only the
largest space he had ever
designed but would have been
the largest exhibition hall in the
world at the time.
 PROMONTORY APARTMENTS

 · First designed as a
steel structure, the 22-
story building was built
using a concrete frame
because of postwar
shortage