Ludwig Mies Van De Rohe (1886-1969)

Mies Van De Rohe held the philosophy of less is more and it was exemplified in his drawings and his buildings. He was also attributed with "Universal Design" and the phrase, "God is in the details". After having seen some of his designs I would recognize them anywhere as they always look somewhat incomplete to me. It is as if he started a sentence but left off the punctuation. In architecture, this is translated into walls that never connect and doorways that appear to be disjointed on plan. When the word universal design is used it is because it was so common for others to imitate and mimic his methods because they were effective and very clean and simple in appeal. Nevertheless, you could always recognize his work by the high standards of the details.

An example of his genius in details was the Barcelona Pavilion in Germany. It was an open plan with a structured grid. There was no single enclosed space, yet the space is fixed all the same. He uses cruciform stainless-steel pillars. He uses ornament to convey skill and extraordinary quality of materials such as marble and onyx and carefully crafted details.

He moved from Germany to the United States and began teaching at the Illinois Insititute of Technology where he designed the masterplan for the campus. He designed the renowned, Crown Hall, at ITT (1950-1956). It was composed of steel and glass and was emptied of structural elements due to the fact that it had girders the span of the building, supporting the roof.

It gave the building glass walls, Terrazzo floors and total flexibility. What a vision. No wonder everyone imitated his style.