MIES VAN DER ROHE

A great thinker: this is one of the first things that grips our attention while observing the portrait of this
visionary architect, Master Builder. Prophetic since each of his constructions is as topical nowadays as it was
one century ago. Humanist as well, as his architecture highly aims to be at service of mankind and of a better
humanity. Revolutionary indeed, since he invented, in his own words, "a new grammar of architecture something you cannot devise every Monday morning. .
Mies van der Rohe, an artist, and certainly a master. Infatuated with space and light, thirsting absolute, he
pushed back the boundaries of space up to only leave the main things, the very essence, the presence.
Architect of light and space was he, with superior lines of greatness and simplicity. With reason was he
considered to be a perfectionist, but he was sometimes said to be austere and taciturn because he was very
silent; shy, reflective, he did not like long speeches. He also left little written works but bequeaths a legacy all
the more so remarkable that his work is simple and refined. As architecture history has seen many of its
major figures leave their mark at each different stage, one can wonder what made of Ludwig Mies van der
Rohe a true myth. Subtle encounter between personal genius and circumstances, no doubt he was the right
man at the right time and we must here take good measure of what this meant.
The First World War had opened a deep wound across Europe and beyond, making people cry out "never
again!. A new thirst rise in various areas as well as an impulse for renewal, supported by the numerous and
progressive transformations of everyday life due to the industrial revolution, which changed little by little the
way people perceive the world, the way they think, understand and the way to relate with others or the
universe. In Germany upraises then the BAUHAUS, real movement which influences architecture and
design, as well as all crafts, furniture, painting, sculpture, jewelry, graphic design and textile. It was more a
way of thinking than just a style, marked by the intense development of science, industry and technology.
One of its trademarks is the removal of any superficial details: it is the frame, the structure in itself that has
to be decorative. Another important point is the use and implementation of all modern materials such as
iron, steel, concrete and glass notably. In this historical background develops the philosophy of Ludwig Mies
van der Rohe.
Born in 1886 in Aachen, former capital of the German Empire and Charlemagnes homeland, the young Mies
works in his fathers master-mason workshop, but he shows a particular draughtsman talent and develops an
acute sense of material. Lets keep in mind this important point which will be omnipresent along his career.
Child of choir, he sings in one of the most beautiful Gothic cathedrals of Europe. The Gothic style fascinates
him. It seems to get rid of material heaviness to rise within a vital impetus and give that incredible sensation
of lightness while allowing streams of light to enter through many and grand stained glass.
Miess father does not allow him to enter the art school and make higher education; he then takes a Mason
training and learn how to build walls and stone work - but remains in him a strong curiosity and thirst for
knowledge which he will fulfill through its countless readings, throughout his life. He initially works in a
company specialized in stucco decoration, then in 1905 he leaves to Berlin to work a few years with architect
Bruno Paul, then with Peter Behrens. He discovers Prussian classicism, Russian Constructivism and De Stijl
movement as well as Karl Schinkel who will have great influence on him, such as Walter Gropius, the future
founder of the Bauhaus.
Mies soon shows an artistic temperament and conviction of real artists, refusing sometimes to cooperate with
colleagues or to make concessions on projects. He dominates the classic style of the time, of which he
particularly loves the wide proportions, the regular rhythms and the particular concern of relationship
between man and nature. This first phase of his career develops thus in the bedrock of 19th century and his
clients appreciate his work. The First World War, where he is mobilized from 1914 to 1918, will cause a first
great upheaval in his life and his conception of the profession. The injury is certainly deep for his good and
human loving nature, so as to make him exclaim using Guardinis word: "I saw death fall over a life of
infinite beauty.
Note that each turning point of his career is marked as if it was caused by the rupture of war and its
destruction, by reductive and violent ideologies provoking most probably new awareness and developments,
a struggle that drives him to go further in his search. Some people would say that his works, so well ordered
and balanced in appearance, hide in fact a great struggle; a constant struggle to conquer order, harmony and

an environment being in adequate response to the blooming of human being in this industrial age, recovering
from chaos. He then leaves his family and joins the contemporary artists-philosophers in an effort to search
for a new style which would reflect the modern age, unpretentious, in response to the failure of a now
criticized imperial domination.
A search thus for honest and true architecture, opening borders, ventilating spaces, letting light flow in
profusion and getting rid of the unnecessary. An art facing straight practical problems, structures, materials
and their own requirements, bare as if to better get to the core - Less is more... or how to do more, be more,
give more with less. During this period Mies continues to realize neoclassical commissions, but at the same
time he develops building projects, according to his perpetual concern, to be in total harmony with human
being in its current environment. Founder of modernism, Mies designs in 1921 the famous steel and glass
skyscraper, a masterpiece of abstraction which was never carried out and seemed to come out of a science
fiction film. Everything there is spare leaving a sense of elevation, space and light. An impression of power
also though not arrogant, as if the power of order, beauty and peace were winners of gravity, ugliness,
disorder and absurdity.
Very active in this period after the war, Mies van der Rohe works at G magazine as early as 1923 and becomes
a major contributor to his architectural and philosophical epoch. Endowed with a spirit of high acuity, he
pitches in the detailed study of great philosophers and thinkers to better understand his epoch and the new
requirements it implied. It is fascinating to see gradually disclose the richness, quality or human and
intellectual density of his work and thought, while one contemplates the simple lines, as if they emerged little
by little of what sometimes seems even, in appearance uninteresting repetition. The strength of the presence
combined with the simplicity and the sobriety are such that it forces us to find out the motive and intention
to generate the unity of these forms and proportions. Nothing is left to hazard - which also finally caused him
the criticism of absolute perfectionism.
Le Corbusier was the mathematician architect, making tabula rasa before starting a construction; Mies was
the architect of the context, seeking always to fit buildings and volumes in the line of landscape, without
destroying, without creating any discordant tensions. He thus succeeds in erecting buildings of absolute
modernity which contrast with those around, without violence or clash but rather as a dialogue, a transition,
a history. But let us look back again at the "German" career of Mies: he became Director of the Werkbund
and founded the Association Der Ring. From 1925 on he collaborates actively with his companion Lilly Reich,
an interior designer with whom he namely cooperates in 1928 for the Tugendhat villa in Brno, then for the
very famous German Pavilion (Barcelona universal exhibition in 1929), real emblem of the Modernist
International Movement. Concerned by the harmony of the whole, he does only conceive the building but
also the furniture that goes in it, and which has become kind of signature of Mies Van der Rohe (e.g. the
famous Barcelona chair).
Mies creates indeed a whole collection of furniture, totally in line with the Modernist architectural style.
Before the beauty and perfection of these volumes and proportions, the accuracy of choices and the
incredible unity of constructions, we have to state that any writing seeking to explicit or clarify them, will
sooner or later face the same limit: the word cannot fully render the "metaphysical" reality of things. Mies
used to say: one cannot speak of the most important things. To understand from the inside (in Latin intuslegere, which is said to be the etymology of the word intelligence), we have to see, observe, be willing to
contemplate and listen, be awaken and taught in silence by the reality that surrounds us. Such is his work.
Difficult to transcribe, more to be looked at even if it we can give some reading trails.
The 1929 crisis generates cutting of orders and work opportunities. However the success of the Barcelona
Pavilion gives Mies van der Rohe an international aura and Walter Gropius asks him to take the Direction of
the Bauhaus school in 1930. But the 1931 election gives majority to the future Nazi party, which will be
vehemently opposed to this "degenerate" movement (!) and will finally cause its closure in 1933: Mies
insisting in keeping a total apolitical nature to the movement. Now the threat of this new political and
totalitarian regime scares him off in the end; he answers a job offer on the other side of the Atlantic. Old
Europe (government) does not want him and his liberal and humanistic views; America opens wide arms to
him, proud to welcome a talented architect, and quickly offering him to take over the Chair of architecture at
the IIT (Illinois Institute of Technology).

We recommend you to read Ludwig Mies van der Rohes opening speech (which can be found with other
archives on the site of the Mies Foundation). It presents a synthesis of his pedagogy
http://www.miessociety.org/speeches/banquet-speech/ . Rich of a former education experience, seeing this
opportunity to realize and deepen his research, Mies accepts the position he will then hold for 20 years.
Having emigrated in 1938, Mies takes the American citizenship in 1944, which is not a detail. We must not
forget that architects were considered true Heroes after the fire which destroyed Chicago in the late 19th
century. During this third phase of his life and work, although being over 50 years old Mies will be very
prolific. Over 20 buildings conceived in 20 years. In 1945 he begins a private order, the Farnsworth House.
Located in the countryside, on the banks of the Fox River, to be a kind of retreat house, it entirely marries the
nature surrounding, and seems suspended in time. Light, very impressive under any point of view, without
any walls of separation between the various living spaces, you can admire the perfection of every detail and
finishes - something which Mies had an incredible sense ("God, said, lies in the details").
For some, this architecture can seem cold and smooth, but we must keep in mind the message that it carries,,
the context in which it was developed, the digest of masterful revolutions it contains. Miess buildings are not
only buildings, they are truly works of art, hence sometimes this sensation of cold perfection. They are
however imbued with great clarity, clarity of lines and clarity of light. The environment somehow influences
the way in which you are going to live in it. The exterior for Mies is always an extension of the Interior and
walls are not a limit but an opening. Mies is extremely aware of the landscape.
He hates ornamental overload (architecture is not a martini!); but one should not think there is no
ornamentation in his works! Materials are selected and worked with the greatest care; perfect finishes,
although less visible at first sight, give the feeling of completed work. Thoroughness of geometry - but not
rigidity, harmony of proportions, precision, play of reflections and light: Mies undoubtedly creates a
revolutionary new form of living space, ready to host a new impetus of the enlightened mind, positive, wide,
very vital to human being. His buildings are in fact the desire and assertion of an optimistic view on life and
the future of Humanity, the will of standing man firm in a strong, true, great but light environment. Mies
brings in his teaching and achievements the synthesis of a lifetime of reflections and experience.
Mies was a man of reflection but he was not a mere theorist. He was a man with great practical sense who
wanted to have "head in the sky but the feet well on earth". Any work had to begin with touch, experience and
knowledge of the material not through theory first. This great realism would then gradually lead the
Builder to a theory and then to his final work. The more we listen to Mies, the more we get to the conclusion
that he must have lengthily studied Aristotle and his realistic philosophy. Realistic was he to the point of
requiring from photographers to catch only ground views of all his buildings in order to accurately reflect
what people really felt when they faced them. No aerial views thus
There was a phase after Mies death where his modernist style has been criticized because it was
misinterpreted and mainly roughly reproduced and we got tired of it. Only now, we start having a true
historic perception of his work and this hindsight helps us now measure how much he really is the most
influential and revolutionary architect in the world, offering a new concept of space and living space, using all
technological challenges of his time (assembling steel, using 8 meter-long pillars, building with little columns
as possible, using glass walls, resistant to harshest climatic conditions, etc...). Mies did however not want
technology to be used in a repetitive or automatic manner, as according to him it should be used to be
transcended. This is a real key to understand his work.
As in all artists, works are a reflection of the different stages of his art and reflection. Mies van der Rohe
incorporated in his work all influences which seem good and interesting to him. Deeply interested in nature,
science and research, kind and funny (he had plenty of humor), he best embodied the concept of Modernity
thus called Father of Modernism. It is extremely interesting to taking time and find out who Mies really is,
behind the few clichs that we know of him and his work.


Quotes:

"I do not want to be original. I do not want to be interesting. I want to be good, that is what I want.
"What would concrete and steel be without glass?"
"Architecture is the will of an epoch translated into space."
"I don't know how many students we have. But ten are sufficient to change a cultural climate if they are good
indeed.
"A chair is a very difficult subject. A skyscraper is almost easier to conceive."
"Viollet-le-Duc showed that the evolution of Gothic Cathedrals over 300 years was but a deepening of the
same type of construction. We chose the constructions which are possible at our time, and we then try to
clarify them up to the slightest details. This way, we want to establish a basis for the subsequent
development".
"Education must start with practical learning of life. Architecture begins when you assemble one brick with
another. This is where it really starts.
"I think that people should live as they like. Most people have never lived in high buildings. But others and I
know many of them, lived for many years and are still fascinated to live in there.
"The facts are given to us." () The question is what we are going to do with these facts. This is the human
(ethics) aspect of the issue." () It is everyones task, and not just a minoritys, to use things for the greatest
good of all. This is, I think, what we really should do with our lives.

Speech in The new Era: http://modernistarchitecture.wordpress.com/2010/10/25/ludwig-mies-van-derrohe%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Cthe-new-era%E2%80%9D-1930/

Crown Hall Dedication Speech: http://www.miessociety.org/speeches/crown-hall-dedication-speech/
Ouverture Speech:

http://www.miessociety.org/speeches/commencement-speech/

ID Merger Speech:

http://www.miessociety.org/speeches/id-merger-speech/

Text & Page setting: Fabiola Regg

Nucleo Capital S.A.