
Mies van der Rohe
Architect, born in Aachen, Germany. As a young architect
and designer in Berlin, he foreshadowed modern architecture
with innovative designs for tubular-steel furniture,
such as the cantilevered Barcelona chair (1929),
and steel and glass skyscrapers. He directed the Bauhaus,
Dessau (1930-3), which he closed after Nazi threats.
Though he had built only 19 buildings, he was internationally
famous when he went to the USA (1937),
where he founded and directed the architecture
department at the Armour Institute,
Chicago (later Illinois Institute of Technology) (1938-58),
and designed the institute's master plan and a number
of campus buildings. He celebrated contemporary
technology and materials, and under his
influence skyscraper construction switched from
masonry to metal and glass. Following his credo,
xless is morex, his buildings were characterized by accessible,
simple designs devoid of applied ornament,
and were composed of spaces rather than masses.
A founder of the International style, his influence on 20th-c a
rchitecture can hardly be overestimated.
His starkly simple German Pavilion at the International Exposition in
Barcelona (1929) crystallized public acceptance of modern architecture.
His buildings include the glass Lake Shore Drive Apartments, Chicago (1948-51),
the Seagram Building, New York (1956-8, with Philip Johnson),
and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (1958, 1973).
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe died on 17.8.1969 in Chicago.