Mies is More

Mies, image: designapplause.com

Yesterday marked the 126^th birthday of the great German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Mies is most famously associated with his role in the establishing of what we now would refer to as modern architecture.

Mies first started off working at his father’s stone-carving shop, moving then to Berlin to work for Bruno Paul, the Art Nouveau architect and furniture designer. Kicking off his career, he began working as an apprentice at Peter Behrens, where he was exposed to progressive German culture and current design, both of which influenced him immensely. World War I left Europe in devastation and the need for change was almost tangible throughout. The art and literature scene boomed at this time as people were searching for new styles and ways to separate from the grim effects of the war. Architecture took on a more symbolic meaning with a political voice and undertone seeping through.

IBM Building, image: 2.bp.blogspot.com

The buildings and designs of the historical styles were now under siege; these ‘aristocratic classic style’ enterprises were now the symbol of a desecrated and passé social system. This gave way to visionaries – such as Mies and his colleagues – to create an entire new architectural design process through cogent problem solving and simple design expression, using modern materials to prevaricate the superficiality of the classical facades. Mies was a minimalist and saw no function in eclectic or cluttered styles of the former more-decadent eras. He found inspiration and clarity in the functionalist forms and wide open spaces with careful attention to the relationship between the man-made and the organic, calling his buildings ‘skin and bones’. The idea was to have minimal framework that is structured and balanced with free-flowing open spaces and with sliding doors that can either open up these spaces or shift the spaces as needed.

Mies, image: designapplause.com

Mies made his debut statement with the Friedrichstraße skyscraper, where he boldly abandoned all ornament with a dramatic modernist building almost entirely constructed of glass. He followed this with a loftier, more curved version in 1922 named the Glass Skyscraper. This first appearance from Mies as architect put him in the limelight as he started pioneering many projects. He joined a variety of societies and schools including progressive design magazine G, made director of Werkbund as well as the Director of Architecture of the Bauhaus School of Design. These are to name only but a few of his achievements throughout his career.

Farnsworth House, image: wallfox.net

The saga of Mies van der Rohe’s glass house in Plano, Illinois

Mies’ greatest work is the iconic Farnsworth House, which is the cornerstone of modernism and minimalism, embodying his vision of architecture as he saw it to an extent of almost transcending it. The house situated near the Fox River, Illinois, resembles a glass box completely transparent to the outside, without the everyday clutter and paraphernalia of traditional living as interior. The idea is to feel as if you are ‘one with the environment’, as if the building in its modern and linear appearance was simply only part of the setting, as if by ‘nature’ and not by ‘design’.

Mies' Chair, image: designapplause.com

Mies van der Rohe died on August 17, 1969. After cremation, his ashes were buried near Chicago’s other famous architects in Chicago’s Graceland Cemetery. His grave is marked by a simple black slab of granite and a large Honey Locust tree. Commemorating his 126^th Birthday we can still see the influence and change Mies made upon architecture, modern and post-modern. His buildings are not only revolutionary but also speak of change and progress; it is not in the elaborate that we find clarity but in the simplified. Once we have come to the simple nature of things, then we are able to make progress. In honour of Mies van der Rohe we wish you all a clutter-free day.