{"id":194690,"date":"2026-04-20T11:58:43","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T09:58:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/luxus-plus.com\/?p=194690"},"modified":"2026-04-20T11:58:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T09:58:43","slug":"luxus-magazine-ludwig-mies-van-der-rohe-140-years-of-geometric-purity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/luxus-plus.com\/en\/luxus-magazine-ludwig-mies-van-der-rohe-140-years-of-geometric-purity\/","title":{"rendered":"[LUXUS MAGAZINE] Ludwig Mies van der Rohe: 140 years of geometric purity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, a leading figure in 20th-century architecture whose name continues to resonate with astonishing modernity, was born 140 years ago. In contrast to the triumphant ornamentation of his era, \u201cMies\u201d redefined interior design and luxury through simplicity, structural rigor, and an almost spiritual quest for the essential. From Berlin to Chicago, a look back at ten masterpieces by an architect who loved steel.<\/h4>\n

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\u201cLess is more\u201d \u2013 a life dedicated to the essential<\/b><\/h3>\n

Mies said: \u201cGod is in the details<\/i><\/b>\u201d (\u201cGod is in the details<\/i>\u201d). His creations\u2014whether buildings, houses, or furniture\u2014are undoubtedly the most tangible proof of this.<\/p>\n

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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe<\/b> remains one of the most significant figures in modern architecture. Born in Aachen in 1886, the son of a stonemason, he retained this almost mystical respect for materials throughout his life. For him, luxury lay in the quality of a joint, in the nobility of a raw material, and in the fluidity of the transition between interior and exterior. He was one of the last directors of the Bauhaus before the rise of Nazism\u2014which forced him to emigrate to the United States in the late 1930s. There, he became director of the architecture school at the Illinois Institute of Technology<\/i> (IIT) in Chicago and shaped the way we conceive of space, structure, and the relationship between interior and exterior.<\/p>\n

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Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe poses in front of a scale model of the Lake Shore Drive apartment tower in Chicago in 1956 \u00a9 DR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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For Mies, architecture had to be honest in its structure and pure in its form. His famous maxim \u201cless is more\u201d<\/b> reflects the spirit of his approach: eliminating the unnecessary to reveal the essential. But beware, this minimalism was not synonymous with economy; his projects often cost a fortune due to the demand for perfection he imposed on workers.<\/p>\n

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His collaboration with Lilly Reich, <\/b>his longtime collaborator, was essential, particularly in the 1920s and 1930s\u2014a creative partnership long downplayed, especially regarding major projects such as the Barcelona Pavilion and its associated furniture.<\/p>\n

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Barcelona Pavilion (1928\u20131929) \u2013 The Manifesto of Modernism<\/b><\/h3>\n

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Barcelona Pavilion \u00a9 DR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Perhaps his most instantly recognizable creation, this pavilion designed for the Barcelona International Exposition<\/b> is an ode to open space, noble materials (marble, onyx, glass), and the balance of volumes. Designed in the late 1920s, the golden age of a Germany that had lost the war and was still plagued by social unrest and economic hardship, the Pavilion was intended to present a new image of the country to the world: that of a prosperous, peaceful, democratic nation at the forefront of culture. The building stood like an ancient temple on a travertine base.<\/p>\n

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A U-shaped wall delineated the southern space, which featured a large pool whose outline was defined solely by the floor slabs. On the north side, a U-shaped green marble wall bordered a patio adorned with a second, smaller pool.<\/p>\n

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Barcelona Pavilion \u00a9 DR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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The building was dismantled at the end of the exhibition in 1930, but it left a lasting mark on history. Those responsible for its reconstruction in the 1980s sought to remain faithful to the original plans. With its limited color palette and floating planes, it is both an exercise in pure geometry and an invitation to contemplation.<\/p>\n

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A well-known anecdote: Mies and Lilly Reich<\/b> designed the famous Barcelona Chair<\/b> for this pavilion, which is still produced today by Knoll and has become a symbol of modern design.<\/p>\n

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Click here to read the full article<\/a> on Luxus Magazine<\/p>\n

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Featured Photo: \u00a9 DR<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, a leading figure in 20th-century architecture whose name continues to resonate with astonishing modernity, was born 140 years ago. In contrast to the triumphant ornamentation of his era, \u201cMies\u201d redefined interior design and luxury through simplicity, structural rigor, and an almost spiritual quest for the essential. From Berlin to Chicago, a look back at ten masterpieces by an architect who loved steel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1882,"featured_media":194687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"%%post_title%% %%sep%% %%sitetitle%%","_seopress_titles_desc":"To mark the 140th anniversary of the birth of architect and designer Mies van der Rohe, we look back at ten landmark works by the father of the Barcelona chair.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"both","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":301,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22488],"tags":[23019,24191],"class_list":["post-194690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle-en","tag-furnishing-and-decoration","tag-luxus-plus-mag-en-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/luxus-plus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/luxus-plus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/luxus-plus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/luxus-plus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1882"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/luxus-plus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194690"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/luxus-plus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194694,"href":"https:\/\/luxus-plus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194690\/revisions\/194694"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/luxus-plus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/luxus-plus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/luxus-plus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/luxus-plus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}