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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, born in 1886 in Aachen (Germany), died in 1969 in Chicago, was a designer of furniture and was a valued architect. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe studied for contractor, after his studies he worked for four years (1900 to 1904) as a stucco designer at an architectural firm in Aachen.
A year later, in 1905, Mies van der Rohe moved to Berlin, where he worked two years for Bruno Paul, this was a German architect. In the same year, 1907, Van der Rohe designed his first building. In his further career he also designed chairs next to buildings. He designed the chairs together with Lilly Reich, a modern designer from Germany.
His designs were distinguished by the well thought-out and accurate use of, among other things, natural stone, glass and steel. He also used exactly measured shapes. Robert Browning once described the statement "Less is more" in a poem from 1855. Van der Rohe agreed and this was his motto for life.
Barcelona ChairMies van der Rohe also designed chairs himself, such as the Barcelona Chair, which he had made especially for the world exhibition organized in Barcelona in 1929. The Barcelona chair was a chair with footstool and is still in production today. The official name of the chair was Model 250L Barcelona Chair. The characteristics of the chair are that there is, among other things, a separate cushion for the seat and back. There are also buttons on the chair of a high quality leather. The frame is made of high-gloss steel with a chromed finish.
Van der Rohe saw walls as sliding screens and they were placed as desired. Chairs were in classic forms with elegance and a perfect finish. The chairs designed by Mies van der Rohe look as if they can be mass-produced in the factory, but this is certainly not the case. The chairs must be finished with care by hand.
Mies van der Rohe has won three important prizes in his life as an architect, winning the AIA Gold Medal, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Royal Gold Medal.
