HEROES-Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Less is more. The man who said this was Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. I think he can make a credible claim to being the father of minimalism. If it wasn't for Mies, you would never see the elegant designs of Dieter Rams or Jony Ive. You wouldn't have the minimalist lifestyle design of Leo Babauta. Mies is the cornerstone for all that we can call minimalist.

Mies did not begin as a minimalist. He was like the other architects of his day designing neoclassical structures with flourish and ornamentation. Somewhere along the way, he rejected all that crap. He stripped it down to its essence, and he changed the world in the process. His work is still revolutionary to this day.



Critics of Mies will point out how austere his work can be. It seems otherworldly, sterile, and not quite human. But when I see the Farnsworth House, I see a structure that is both beautiful and timeless. I would put that structure against anything Frank Gehry has built. A Gehry structure is an architectural abortion.

Not everything that Mies built makes sense. The Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin is an elegant structure but not a very good museum. His structures did not always fill the needs of the people who had to live and work in them. This may be his philosophy taken to the extreme.



Mies also designed furniture such as his famous Barcelona Chair. This chair typifies the elegance and simplicity of the man and his ideas.

Minimalism is not for everyone. In aesthetics, there is no right or wrong. But I love elegant designs and simplicity. Mies van der Rohe got the ball rolling with his designs. He has been much imitated, and he gave a foundation for other minimalist designers to build on. Mies blazed a new trail which is still with us. The ironic thing is that his buildings will still look good 100 years from now.

Posted in: