LUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHE

HOA – IV 1
BIOGRAPHY:
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969),
a German-born architect and educator,
is widely acknowledged as one of the
20th century’s greatest architects.
By emphasizing open space and
revealing the industrial materials used in
construction, he helped define modern

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 BIOGRAPHY:
• Born in Aachen, Germany, Mies spent the first half of his career in his native country. His early
work was mainly residential, and he received his first independent commission, the Riehl House,
when he was only 20 years old.

• He worked in his father's stone carving shop and at several local design firms before he moved to
Berlin, where he joined the office of interior designer Bruno Paul.

• He began his architectural career as an apprentice at the studio of Peter Behrens from 1908 to
1912, where he was exposed to the current design theories and to progressive German culture,
working alongside Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier, who were later also involved in the
development of the Bauhaus.Mies served as construction manager of the Embassy of the German
Empire in Saint Petersburg under Behrens.

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PIONNER OF MODERN
ARCHITECTURE:

Along with Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and

Frank Lloyd Wright, he is widely regarded as
one of the pioneers of modern architecture.
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PIONNER OF ARCHITECTURE:
• Mies quickly became a leading figure in the avant
garde life of Berlin and was widely respected in Europe
for his innovative structures, including the Barcelona
Pavilion.

• In 1930, he was named director of the Bauhaus, the

renowned German school of experimental art and
design, which he led until 1933 when he closed the
school under pressure from the Nazi Regime
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 STYLE:

• Mies, like many of his post-World War I contemporaries

sought to establish a new architectural style that could
represent modern times.

• Mies' architecture has been described as being expressive

of the industrial age.He created an influential twentieth-
century architectural style, stated with extreme clarity and
simplicity.
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 PHILOSOPHY:
• Mies' buildings, beyond merely affecting our lives
endow them with greater significance and beauty.

• The absence of any decorative treatment was

fundamental.His buildings radiate the confidence,
rationality, and elegance of their creator and,His
buildings were free of ornamentationHis works confess
the essential elements of our lives.

• He followed the reductionist approach.Less is more.

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CHARACTERSTIC FEATURES:
Characteristic Featuressimplicity and clarity of forms and
elimination of'unnecessary detail"materials at 90 degrees to
each othervisual expression of structure (as opposed to the
hiding of structural elements)the related concept of "Truth
to materials", meaning that the true nature or natural
appearance of a material ought to be seen rather than
concealed or altered to represent something elseuse of
industrially-produced materials; adoption of the machine
aesthetic
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SIGNIFICANCE:
• Mies pursued an ambitious lifelong mission to create a
new architectural language that could be used to
represent the new era of technology and production.

• He saw a need for an architecture expressive of and in

harmony with his epoch.

• He applied a disciplined design process using into the

floor of a lobby, synthesizing the exterior and interior
spaces of the site.
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SIGNIFICANCE:

• The device accentuated the effortless flow

between natural conditions and artificial
structures.

• This characteristic is often found in his large

building projects such as the Seagram
Building.

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 FEATURES:
• His mature buildings made use of modern materials such as industrial
steel and plate glass to define interior spaces.

• He strove toward an architecture with a minimal framework of

structural order balanced against the implied freedom of unobstructed
free-flowing open space.

• He called his buildings "skin and bones" architecture.Mies found

appeal in the use of simple rectilinear and planar forms, clean lines,
pure use of color, and the extension of space around and beyond
interior walls.

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 FEATURES:
• Traditionalism toModernismAfter World War I, Mies began, while still
designing traditional neoclassical homes, a parallel experimental
effort.

• Boldly abandoning ornament altogether, Mies made a dramatic

modernist debut with his stunning competition proposal for the
faceted all glass Friedrichstraße skyscraper in 1921, followed by a
taller curved version in 1922 named the Glass Skyscraper.

• He joined the German avant-garde, working with the progressive

design magazine Gwhich started in July 1923.

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FEATURES:
• He developed prominence as architectural director of the Werkbund,
organizing the influential Weissenhof Estate prototype modernist
housing exhibition. He was also one of the founders of the
architectural association Der Ring.
• He ioined the avant-garde Bauhaus design school as their director of
architecture, adopting and developing their functionalist application
of simple geometric forms in the design of useful objects.

• He served as its last director.

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Mies van der rohe works:
• 330 North Wabash. • Farnsworth House.

• 900-910 North Lake Shore. • Seagram Building.

• Barcelona Pavilion. • Toronto-Dominion Centre.

• Carr Memorial Chapel. • Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

• S. R. Crown Hall.

• Everett McKinley Dirksen United States

Courthouse.

https://youtu.be/Z8VdhVJQm9U 14
THE FRANSWORTH HOUSE
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 The Farnsworth House, built
between 1945 and 1951 for Dr. Edith
Farnsworth as a weekend retreat, is
a platonic perfection of order gently
placed in spontaneous nature in 
Plano, Illinois

Just right outside of Chicago in a 10-acre secluded wooded site

with the Fox River to the south, the glass pavilion takes full
advantage of relating to its natural surroundings, achieving Mies'
concept of a strong relationship between the house and nature.
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 • The single-story house consists of eight I-shaped steel
columns that support the roof and floor frameworks, and
therefore are both structural and expressive.

• In between these columns are floor-to-ceiling windows

around the entire house, opening up the rooms to the
woods around it.

• The windows are what provide the beauty of Mies' idea of

tying the residence with its tranquil surroundings. His idea
for shading and privacy was through the many trees that
were located on the private site.

• Mies explained this concept in an interview about the glass

pavilion stating, "Nature, too, shall live its own life.

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• Mies intended for the house to be as light as possible on
the land, and so he raised the house 5 feet 3 inches off the
ground, allowing only the steel columns to meet the
ground and the landscape to extend past the residence.

• In order to accomplish this, the mullions of the windows

also provide structural support for the floor slab. 
• The ground floor of the Farnsworth House is thereby
elevated, and wide steps slowly transcend almost
effortlessly off the ground, as if they were floating up to
the entrance.

• Aside from walls in the center of the house enclosing

bathrooms, the floor plan is completely open exploiting
true minimalism. 

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• In 1954 the river rose six feet above the one-hundred-year-mark and flooded the house.

• However, Mies was not able to anticipate the increase in water runoff caused by the
development in the Chicago area which led to more floods.

• Current research states that the interior of the house has received flood waters on
6 occasions, beginning in 1954 and becoming more frequent having also flooded in
1996,1997, and just recently in 2008. 
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• The man-made geometric form creates a relationship the extraneous
landscape surrounding it to exemplify "dwelling" in its simplest state.

• As Mies stated on his achievement, "If you view nature through the glass
walls of the Farnsworth House, it gains a more profound significance than if
viewed from the outside.

• That way more is said about nature---it becomes part of a larger whole.

https://youtu.be/aol_3Iy76I4 20
S.R.Crown hall

S. R. Crown Hall, designed by the German-American

Modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, is the
home of the College of Architecture at the Illinois
Institute of Technology in Chicago, Illinois.

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3360 S. State Street, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois

Location

1950–1956
Built

120' x 220' feet in floor area, with a ceiling height of 18 feet

Area

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 Concept
Crown Hall cohesively represents his architectural concepts
and theories in their most complete and mature form. A
National Historic Landmark, Crown Hall is a
straightforward expression of construction and materiality,
which allows the structure to transcend into art. Its
refinement and innovation place it among the most
distinguished buildings of its age and define its importance
in the history of architecture.

The building is configured as a self-contained in a

rectangular shape on two levels.Is a free volume with its
four walls of glass, surrounded by a large green area, with
large trees, mainly in the south facade. The glazing on all
sides that allows the faculty do not give back the rest of the
buildings, while respecting the context.It is characterized by
an industrial aesthetic of simplicity, clearly stated in
their steel frames.

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Site and Orientation
The Illinois Institute of Technology is located four miles
south of downtown Chicago. Crown Hall is situated
practically in the center of campus, near the metro station
and the main station, making it one of the buildings with
the best location within the university. This is because
Mies considered him one of his masterpieces and one of
the landmarks of the IIT in Chicago.The streets
surrounding the building on campus are separated by
green areas that isolates it from any noise.Each building is
separated from the other.
They averaged a height of 3 or 4 levels which ensures that
not obstruct the view or natural light. From the inside of
buildings can be seen north of Chicago skyscrapers.The
four sides of the building permit free entry of light and use
the views. Crown Hall is oriented south to north. The main
entrance is located on the south facade, allowing cover to
enter the workshop, with the profile of the city of Chicago
as the background light in the windows of the north
facade. The building also has this orientation so that the
lighting is natural light main north-south and not east-
west, which is usually more intense and difficult to control
up to prove troublesome in many cases.
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Spatial planning
The building is divided into two levels: the main
floor, shaped like a large space and a semi-
buried where they are located the offices,
meeting rooms and services. The main floor,
which occupies 50% of the building, comprising
a single glass-enclosed space devoted to the
study of architecture. Mies called it a “universal
space” to be totally flexible in its use. The
divisions that has very few moving parts, made
with lightweight panels that allow you to place
the space as required.

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Materials:
The main materials are steel, reinforced concrete and glass.

In 2005 the restoration of the original painting of

the steel structure was replaced by a black lead-
free coating. The glass was replaced in its entirety
by panels that meet the wind load requirements.
The surface of the travertine terrace in the south
was replaced. The interior wood panels and
cabinets were replaced. Were added and electrical
wiring to the main floor.

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Design
The master plan for the campus was based on a 24' by 24'
grid that was the structural module used as a mechanical
tool for locating building columns. "Orderliness was the
real reason," Mies stated on his use of the grid. The
dimension of it was determined by room size,
accommodating classrooms, drafting rooms, and laboratory
work, which were the three main types of expected activity
to occur on the campus. Room sizes were determined from
the sizes and arrangements of desks, drafting tables, and
lab benches. This in turn began as a reverse planning order
and determined the direction of the growth of the campus,
where the furniture determined the room size, which then
added up to the building size, and together the buildings
created the campus.
The grid created the space between and within the two to three
story buildings and incorporated Mies' concept of "universal
space." His ideas on this included the expression of structure,
exterior walls used as skin, and the overlapping placement of
buildings to allow space to flow. The design challenge for Mies
arose with programs that did not fit within the activities with
which he structured the grid around, for example, the auditorium
and stairs. In Mies' first approach to this problem he separated
these components outside of the main building blocks. However,
he continued reworking the plan so that they became part of the
building blocks. In the final rendition he used his concept of
universal space to solve the problem. The auditorium became a
huge column-free space, allowing these specific programs to take
their own forms free from the gridded structure. In this way,
building structure was also not compromised by interior
functions.
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Expression of mordernism

It was important to Mies that the buildings kept a

modern style during the development of the campus,
and maintained this look for the future. By confining
himself to contemporary materials, glass and steel, he
was able to craft the expression of modernity. This is
especially noted in the S.R. Crown Hall, which is the
College of Architecture and the most admired building
of the collection. Designed in 1956, Crown Hall is a
straightforward expression of construction and
materiality. The building has an open plan that does not
have the disruption of columns, once again creating
"universal space." The only partitions in the building are
free-standing oak partitions that mark different spaces
for different activities.

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The suspended roof, without interior columns, created universal space that could be endlessly
adapted to new uses.
His use of off-the-shelf components, including standard glass panes and steel I-beams, made the
building economical to construct.
Carefully-proportioned, repetitive elements of the exterior convey both uniformity and precision
of construction.
The design is seemingly simple. Mies once described the building as “almost nothing.”

https://youtu.be/6qD2Xp-aqQg 30
BARCELONA
PAVILLION

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 • Architects: Mies van der Rohe.

• Year : 1929 .

• In 1929 International Exposition in

Barcelona Spain, the Barcelona
Pavilion, designed by Mies van der
Rohe, was the display of architecture’s
modern movement to the world.

Originally named the German Pavilion, the pavilion was the face of Germany
after WWI, emulating the nation’s progressively modern culture that was still
rooted in its classical history.

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 Its elegant and sleek design combined with
rich natural material presented Mies’
Barcelona Pavilion as a bridge into his
future career, as well as architectural
modernism.

the Barcelona Pavilion resides on a narrow site in a

quiet tucked away corner secluded from the bustling
city streets of Barcelona.  Raised on a plinth of
travertine, the Barcelona Pavilion separates itself
from it context create atmospheric and experiential
effects that seem to occur in a vacuum that dissolves
all consciousness of the surrounding city.
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 The pavilion’s design is based on a
formulaic grid system developed by
Mies that not only serves as the
patterning of the travertine pavers,
but it also serves as an underlying
framework that the wall systems
work within.

By raising the pavilion on a plinth in conjunction with the narrow

profile of the site, the Barcelona Pavilion has a low horizontal
orientation that is accentuated by the low flat roof that appears to
float over both the interior as well as the exterior.
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 The low stature of the building narrows the
visitor’s line of vision forcing one to adjust to the
views framed by Mies.  
When walking up onto the plinth, one is forced
under the low roof plane that captures the
adjacent outdoor court as well as the interior
moments that induce circulation throughout the
pavilion.
Every aspect of the Barcelona Pavilion has
architectural significance that can be seen at the
advent of modern architecture in the 20th Century;
however, one of the most important aspects of the
pavilion is the roof.  The low profile of the roof
appears in elevation as a floating plane above the
interior volume. 
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 • The pavilion is designed as a proportional
composition where the interior of the pavilion is
juxtaposed to two reflecting pools.
• The smaller reflecting pool is located directly
behind the interior space which allows for light to
filter through the interior volume as well
illuminate the marble and travertine pavers. 

In 1930, the original Barcelona Pavilion was

dismantled after the International Exposition was
over; however; in 1983 a group of Catalan architects
began working on rebuilding the pavilion from
photographs and what little salvaged drawings that
remained.  Today it is open daily and can be seen in
the same location as in 1929.
https://youtu.be/IczFY9UX4YE 36
THANK YOU...... Group 4

Sunethra -21133019.
Anu -21133008.
Padma -21133082.
Yuva – 21133059.
Suman -21133028.
John -21133047.
Kalyan -21133071.
Sailesh -21133077.
Lingesh -21133009.
Saimira -21133055.

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