Last week we featured a gorgeous Detroit townhouse designed by a very famous architect. It was only then that we realised that we’d never really highlighted him – just the occasional mention in passing about some of the furniture that he designed.
Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) is probably the most influential modernist architect to have ever lived – and we’re not saying that lightly. The skyscraper would not be what it is today without his forward-thinking ideas. The concept drawing (first image below) was created with the idea of using soaring glass and steel on the outside of a building – something that had never been done before. It was 1921 and the architectural world wasn’t ready; the design he submitted was unsuccessful.
He was a contemporary of other eminent Bauhaus architects and designers such as Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier, Marcel Breuer, Wassily Kandinsky and László Moholy-Nagy. He become director of the Bauhaus in 1930, remaining until he emigrated to Chicago in 1937 to become head of the architecture department at Illinois Institute of Technology.
You get an understanding of Mies van der Rohe, his methods and his beliefs from some of the quotes that have been attributed to him:
We must be as familiar with the functions of our building as with our materials. We must learn what a building can be, what it should be, and also what it must not be
We must be as familiar with the functions of our building as with our materials. We must learn what a building can be, what it should be, and also what it must not be
Architecture has the power to create order out of unholy confusion
We’ve selected just a few of jis many and varied ground-breaking buildings; he’s designed houses, apartment blocks, a kiosk, a petrol station and a public library.
We’ve placed them in chronological order, according to the date they were completed, to illustrate his progression.
Additional image credits:
