{"id":270,"date":"2024-09-11T13:38:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-11T11:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neuronthemes.com\/ponte\/?p=270"},"modified":"2025-04-10T15:03:58","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T13:03:58","slug":"ludwig-mies-van-der-rohe-le-maitre-de-larchitecture-minimaliste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elips-3d.com\/en\/ludwig-mies-van-der-rohe-the-master-of-minimalist-architecture\/","title":{"rendered":"Ludwig Mies van der Rohe: Master of minimalist architecture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Born March 27, 1886, Aachen<\/strong> in Germany, Ludwig Mies<\/strong> comes from a modest family, Son of Michael Mies<\/strong>stone mason, andAmalie Rohe<\/strong>. A student at a professional drawing school, at the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to local decorators, for whom he created \"Renaissance\" decors for apartment buildings.<\/p>\n

\"Ludwig

Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe<\/p><\/div>\n

The Beginnings: From Rough Stone to Modern Architecture<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In 1906, at the age of 19, he disembarked at Berlin<\/strong>the big city, he became a draughtsman, dragging his pencils around Bruno Paul<\/strong>an architect and designer of the period specializing in the \"art nouveau<\/strong>. Two years later, he received his first assignment, a traditional suburban house. His perfect execution so impressed Peter Behrens<\/strong>Ludwig, then Germany's most progressive architect, offered the 21-year-old a job in his office. And there, Ludwig worked with future greats such as Walter Gropius<\/strong> and Le Corbusier<\/strong>. A crack team.<\/p>\n

Behrens<\/strong>He wasn't the first to come along. A Deutscher Werkbund<\/strong>an association that was thinking big: marrying art and technology, no less. Through it, Mies gained a foothold in this brotherhood of artists and craftsmen who wanted to dust off creation. Their dream? A brand-new design tradition, tailor-made for the industrial age, where everything, even mass-produced items, would have soul and meaning. A kind of \"universal culture\", the famous Gesamtkultur<\/strong>that would put everyone on the same page.<\/p>\n

These ideas had a following. That's where the whole modern architecture movement started. It simmered and bubbled until it gave birth to the famous international style<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u00c0 Berlin<\/strong>Mies took another slap in the face: the neoclassical forms of Schinkel<\/strong>a genius of the early 19th century. Behrens<\/strong> was a fan, and he passed the virus on to Mies. Pure, simple, monumental: Schinkel<\/strong>was the school of purity before its time. And Mies made it his credo. All his quest for that famous Gesamtkultur<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

That's where Ludwig gets his thing: simple, functional, clean. No need to overdo it. It's all about getting to the essence. A bit like a good detective story: no frills, just solid stuff.<\/p>\n

In 1913, Ludwig Mies<\/strong>He figures that a name isn't everything, but it does help open the right doors. So the guy gives himself a little aristocratic extension. He adds a pretty \"van der Rohe<\/strong> to his blaze. The \"van der\" is for the chic salon look. Berlin<\/strong> and the \"Rohe\" is a nod to Mom.<\/p>\n

In 1912, on the strength of his experience, Mies opened his own architectural practice in Berlin<\/strong>. The following year, in 1913, he married Adele \"Ada\" Bruhn<\/strong>daughter of a wealthy industrialist. This marriage brought her financial stability, enabling her to develop her practice.<\/p>\n

In the artistic effervescence of the Weimar Republic \u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

During the First World War, Mies served as a soldier, building bridges and roads in the Balkans<\/strong>. Back to Berlin <\/strong>in 1918, it's a different story: the German monarchy is out the door, the German Republic is in. Weimar<\/strong> is settling in, and it's bubbling over in every corner. Artists, architects, painters and sculptors are exploding with creativity.<\/p>\n

According to the boiling brains of the Bauhaus<\/strong>This school of artists, fuelled by the avant-garde in architecture, painting and sculpture, had to cast off its old-fashioned moorings and set sail for brand-new forms...on the international scene.<\/p>\n

Mies joined several modernist architecture groups during this period and organized numerous exhibitions, but he had virtually nothing to build. His only building during this period - an expressionist memorial to murdered communist leaders Karl Liebknecht<\/strong> and Rosa Luxemburg<\/strong>in 1926 - was demolished by the Nazis. Mies' most important works of these years remained stuck on paper.<\/p>\n

His personal life was marked by difficulties. His marriage to Adele Auguste Bruhn<\/strong>with whom he had three daughters, Dorothea<\/strong>, Marianne<\/strong>and Waltraut<\/strong>His marriage fell apart due to his long absences and numerous extramarital affairs. Their divorce in 1921 was a major blow for him. Mies subsequently had several love affairs, including a long one with the architect and designer Lilly Reich<\/strong>his close collaborator from 1927 to 1938.<\/p>\n

His daughters grew up in interwar Germany, and although they were close to their father, Mies was often very absorbed in his work and projects, especially after his divorce in 1921.<\/p>\n

Despite the distances and physical separation when he emigrated to the United States, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe<\/strong> always kept in touch with his daughters. His relationship with his family was marked by his demanding career and his commitment to modern architecture. But despite his international influence, his private life was marked by a certain solitude. He was a man of few words, preferring sobriety both in his personal relationships and in his creations.<\/p>\n

1927 saw the first Werkbund <\/strong>post-war to Weissenhof <\/strong>near Stuttgart<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The concept? A demonstration of modern housing, orchestrated like a multi-part opera. No fewer than 16 of Europe's leading architects are at the helm, with Le Corbusier<\/strong> and Mies<\/strong> himself. The result: 33 units, between houses and apartment buildings, all to show that the post-war quarrels between architects were a thing of the past. From now on, everyone plays for the same team, the famous international style<\/strong> had just been born.<\/p>\n

Audiences weren't hysterical, but critics and bigwigs were. Europe's elite wanted something modern in their backyard. Perfect example: the Tugendhat<\/strong>which Mies delivered in 1930 to Brno<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"the

the Tugendhat house<\/p><\/div>\n

From the German Pavilion at the Barcelona International Exhibition to Director of the Bauhaus<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Mies's most famous project of the interwar period in Europe is the German pavilion from 1929<\/strong> for Barcelona International Expo<\/strong>. A marvel: simple lines, glass, steel, marble... In short, it smacks of modernism. The only problem? This masterpiece was supposed to be ephemeral. So, after the show, they dismantled the whole thing. Fortunately, it was rebuilt in the 80s, because a monument like this doesn't deserve to end up in a box.<\/p>\n

\"German

German Pavilion at the 1929 Barcelona World's Fair<\/p><\/div>\n

Mies also designed the \"Barcelona\",<\/strong> a jewel for the kings ofSpain<\/strong>. A modern throne, all leather and stainless steel, inspired by the folding chairs of ancient Rome. Luxury and simplicity, a true declaration of intent. Except that those ungrateful monarchs never even sat on it. Too bad for them, the chair has become an icon all the same.<\/p>\n

\"armchair-barcelona-Van-der-Rohe\"

Barcelona armchair<\/p><\/div>\n

In 1930, Mies was appointed director of the Bauhaus<\/strong>who moved from Weimar to Dessau<\/strong> in 1925. But between Nazi attacks from outside and left-wing student revolts from within, the school was in a perpetual state of turmoil. As a result, in 1933, the curtain came down.<\/p>\n

America, America<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In 1937, Mies arrived in the United States. He didn't have time to settle down before he landed a job as a boss at the School of Architecture at the Armour Institute in Chicago<\/strong>future Illinois Institute of Technology<\/strong> for those in the know. He stayed for two decades, and by the time he handed over the keys in 1958, the school was a worldwide star, renowned for its rigorous teaching methods and its campus, designed by Mies himself.<\/p>\n

The campus is a masterclass in simplicity. Between 1939 and 1941, Mies designed uncluttered cubes that could be adapted to suit the school's every whim. Exposed steel, glass galore to reflect the decor and yellow-brown brick: that was his recipe. No frills, just functional elegance<\/p>\n

It was also in the United States that Mies met Lora Marx<\/strong>a talented sculptor. Although they never officially married, Lora<\/strong> became his companion from 1940 onwards, and remained his closest friend in America until her death. Their relationship, both personal and professional, brought a new dimension to Mies's life.<\/p>\n

After the war, Mies' office became a project factory. Orders poured in, and not the least: skyscrapers by the bucketload, steel colossi wrapped in glass facades.<\/p>\n

Visit Promontory Apartments in Chicago<\/strong>delivered in 1949. Or the Lake Shore Drive Apartments<\/strong>which were built in the same town in 1951. And to top it all off, the Seagram Building in New York<\/strong> (1956-58), a jewel of a high-rise office, clad in glass, bronze and marble, designed with his partner Philip Johnson<\/strong>. Every line, every proportion is thought out to the millimetre.<\/p>\n

\"Building

Seagram Building, New York<\/p><\/div>\n

In the '50s, America was fueled by the dream of technical progress, much like the German idea of Gesamtkultur<\/strong>but in a stars and stripes version. As a result, clones of Mies' steel and glass towers sprang up all over the country and beyond. It was the golden age of international style<\/strong>Mies was its undisputed maestro. Mies van der Rohe<\/strong> is the direct inspiration for Minoru Yamasaki<\/strong>the architect of Twin Towers<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Also during this period, Mies applied his modernist aesthetic to three house structures. Farnsworth House<\/strong> \u00e0 Plano<\/strong>, Illinois<\/strong>completed in 1951, a pure marvel of transparency and minimalism, like a floating cube, all glass and steel. Then the Robert McCormick House<\/strong> \u00e0 Elmhurst<\/strong>completed in 1952, which today forms part of the Mus\u00e9e d'Art d'Orsay.Elmhurst<\/strong>. Finally, the Morris Greenwald House in Weston<\/strong>, Connecticut<\/strong>completed in 1955, another masterpiece of simplicity. Three houses, three collector's items. And, between you and me, that's about it - the rest is for the giants of glass and steel.<\/p>\n

Visit Farnsworth House<\/strong>built between 1945 and 1951 for the doctor Edith Farnsworth<\/strong>a glass house set in the countryside. But behind the masterpiece, the affair turns into a fistfight.<\/p>\n

At first, the doctor was thrilled, almost in love with the project. But very quickly things started to go wrong. First with the costs: \"Too expensive! Then overruns: \"How much longer is this circus going to go on? As a result, shortly before completion, the strained personal relationship between Farnsworth and Mies led the architect-contractor to sue his client for non-payment of 28,173 $. The Farnsworth House<\/strong>But it's a bit of a battering, reputation-wise. But what do you expect? Today, she's a legend of modern architecture. Just goes to show, even geniuses and their clients can end up taking each other by the scruff of the neck, which is reassuring for us mere mortals.<\/p>\n