The Creator Of 20th Century Modern Design: The Simple Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Born on the 27th of March 1886 in the city of Aachen, Germany, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is an architect, interior designer and a highest advocate of the Modern Movement in architecture and furniture works. He is regularly recognized today for his modernist “skin and bones” architecture as well as for the various modern furniture designs he created for his buildings.

Similar to most of his contemporaries during that time, Mies van der Rohe (whose true name is Maria Ludwig Mies) begun as an architect prior to branching out to furniture works. Losing some formal college education, van der Rohe moved to Berlin in 1908 and worked as a beginner to the renowned German architect Peter Behrens. It was during his residence at Behrens that Mies van der Rohe discovered the current design theories of the time and met fellow modernist architects Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius. After overcoming his apprenticeship, Mies van der Rohe worked afterwards as a construction manager before working his own professional practice as an architect. Little of the plans he designed that are still standing now include the Lafayette Park in the United States and the Bacardi office building in Mexico.

Mies van der Rohe began creating furniture as a method to complement his architectural plans. Two brilliant examples of which composed the finest Barcelona Chair of the German Pavilion in Barcelona, Spain and the Tugendhat Chair of the Villa Tugendhat in the Czech Republic. Van der Rohe’s furniture style are different for their day for comprising the light, minimalist attributes of modern architecture as well as its initation of both customary and modern elements. Mies van der Rohe was also to have sought help from his longtime buddies, the German interior designer Lilly Reich, whilecreating his designs.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe died on August 17, 1969 and lies at the Graceland Cemetery in Chicago, USA.