Biography

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was a German-American architect, born on March 27, 1886, in Aachen, Germany, and passed away on August 17, 1969, in Chicago, USA. He is widely recognized as one of the most influential architects of the 20th century and a pioneer of modern architecture. Mies van der Rohe was known for his minimalist approach, encapsulated in his famous aphorisms "less is more" and "God is in the details." His work is characterized by the use of modern materials such as steel and glass, which he used to create open and flexible spaces. In the 1930s, Mies served as the last director of the Bauhaus, a seminal school of modernist art, design, and architecture in Germany. With the rise of the Nazi regime, which opposed modernism, he emigrated to the United States, where he became the head of the architecture school at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Among his most notable works are the Barcelona Pavilion, the Seagram Building in New York, and the Farnsworth House in Illinois. Mies's designs have had a lasting impact on architecture and design, making his works highly sought after by collectors and institutions worldwide.