Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) was a German-American architect, he was born in Aachen.
He created an influential twentieth-century architectural style, stated with extreme clarity and simplicity. His mature buildings made use of modern materials such as industrial steel and plate glass to define interior spaces. Ludwig strove toward an architecture with a minimal framework of structural order balanced against the implied freedom of unobstructed free-flowing open space.
He was involved in the development of the Bauhaus where he was architect-director between 1930 and 1933.
Nazi political pressure forced the state-supported school to leave its campus in Dessau, in 1933 the faculty voted to close the Bauhaus. The Nazis rejected his style as not "German" in character.
Frustrated and unhappy, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe left his homeland in 1937.
Mies settled in Chicago, Illinois, where he was appointed head of the architecture school at Chicago's Armour Institute of Technology. In 1944, he became an American citizen. His architecture became an accepted mode of building for American cultural and educational institutions, developers, public agencies, and large corporations.
Mies, often in collaboration with Lilly Reich, designed modern furniture pieces using new industrial technologies that have become popular classics, such as the Barcelona chair. His furniture is known for fine craftsmanship, a mix of traditional luxurious fabrics like leather combined with modern chrome frames.
