Three hypostases of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was born on March 27, 1886 - an outstanding architect and the author of the aphorism "Less is more", which became the motto of minimalism.

However, Mies van der Rohe, in whose honor one of the most prestigious European architectural awards is named, became famous not only for its architectural structures. In honor of the birthday of one of the founders of the international style, PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA decided to recall his three main hypostases.

Architect

Be that as it may, the creation of large forms was the main business of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Along with Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Frank Lloyd Wright, he is considered one of the pioneers of modernism in architecture. The cape created a new style of the XNUMXth century, largely determined the shape of modern cities. He actively used steel and glass, and called his approach "skin and bones" architecture (implying that glass is skin, and the frame is bones). In addition, the Cape propagated the principle of free planning.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Although Misa's style began to take shape in Germany, a new page in his creative biography opened with his move to the United States. It was these American projects that became prototypes for similar projects around the world.

Thus, in the period from 1946 to 1951, Mies van der Rohe designed and built the Farnsworth House, a country residence for Dr. Edith Farnsworth. Here Mys studied the relationship between man, housing and nature. The glass box of the Farnsworth House is raised on beams one and a half meters above ground level. As a result, one gets the impression that the house is floating surrounded by trees. From the inside, the house is a single room without walls, in which there is a sleeping area, a kitchen, a bathroom and a fireplace. Curtains to the full height of the glass walls allow privacy in a completely transparent house.

Farnsworth House
Farnsworth House
Farnsworth House
Farnsworth House
Farnsworth House
Farnsworth House
Farnsworth House
Farnsworth House
Farnsworth House

During his American period, Mys designed a series of high-rise residential buildings at 860–880 Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. These steel and glass skyscrapers were radically different from the typical brick buildings of that time. The houses are simple rectangular boxes raised on stilts above a glass lobby.

860–880 Lake Shore Drive
860–880 Lake Shore Drive
860–880 Lake Shore Drive

In 1958, Mies van der Rohe created what is called the pinnacle of modernist high-rise architecture - the Seagram Building in New York. Here, the architect decided on a bold step for that time - to move the skyscraper away from the border of the site for renovation to create a square and a fountain. Misu had to convince the customers that a taller tower with significant "unused" open space at ground level would create prestige for the building and its investors.

Seagram Building

Using the Seagram Building as a model, Mies' office has built a number of modern skyscrapers, including the Chicago Federal Center, IBM Plaza in Chicago, Westmount Square in Montreal, and the Toronto-Dominion Centre.

Chicago Federal Center
Westmount Square
IBM Plaza
Toronto-Dominion Centre

Furniture designer

Mies van der Rohe is also the creator of several well-known examples of furniture design. The armchairs he made in collaboration with Lilla Reich became real classics. So, specifically for the German pavilion at the international exhibition in Barcelona in 1929, they designed the Barcelona chair, which is now a symbol of functional design. In 1929-1930, they created pieces of furniture for a villa in Brno (Czech Republic) – Brno chair and Tugendhat chair. Misa and Reich furniture is characterized by a combination of traditional materials, such as leather, with chrome frames, as well as a clear division of the supporting structure and supporting surfaces, often with the use of consoles to enhance the feeling of lightness. Interestingly, for many years no one remembered Reich's participation in the work on chairs, until the end of the XNUMXth century, when researchers began to revive the memory of her work.

Barcelona chair
Brno chair
Tugendhat chair

Teacher

Mies van der Rohe contributed to the education of the future generation of architects. He was the third and last director of the Bauhaus, after the mayor of Dessau fired Hannes Meyer from this position in 1930 for allegedly promoting communism. Misa's attempts to establish modernism as an apolitical direction in order to survive under Nazism proved futile: when the Nazi Party gained control over the Dessau council, it closed the Bauhaus.

Bauhaus school in Dessau

In 1932, Mys rented an abandoned factory in Berlin with his own funds, which served as the last refuge for the Bauhaus. The students themselves were engaged in the restoration of this factory. For almost an hour, no one interfered with education, until the Gestapo raided the school, accusing it of conducting anti-Nazi propaganda. In the end, Mies van der Rohe decided to close the school in order not to make unpleasant compromises with the Nazi regime.

Crown Hall, Illinois Institute of Technology

In 1938, Mys emigrated to the USA and received an invitation to take up the position of director of the School of Architecture at Chicago's Armor Institute of Technology (which later became the Illinois Institute of Technology). Mys headed the school for the next 20 years. And by the time he retired in 1958, it had become world-renowned for its teaching methods, as well as for its campus, which Mys designed in 1939-1941.

See also: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe — time and glass