Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was born in 1885 in Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia. His family ran a stonemasonry where van der Rohe started working. As well as working in the family business, he also worked for various local design firms before moving to Berlin in 1908. In his new home city, he joined the interior designer Bruno Paul, which launched his architectural career.

With him, Van der Rohe learned all about modern design theories and progressive German culture alongside Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius. After working for a time with Berlin's cultural elite, he renamed himself from Mies to the more polished surname Mies van der Rohe as part of his transformation into a successful architect.

After designing exclusive homes in a more classical style for Berlin's upper class, he began his transition from traditional to modern architecture after the end of the First World War. The designer, along with several avant-garde pioneers, began searching for the new style that would fit the post-war era with a more modern, industrial design. In 1922, he began designing glass skyscrapers and in 1929 he designed the German pavilion for the Barcelona World Fair and several prototypes of funky houses. Then the Bauhaus design school and the role of head of architecture beckoned.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was a pioneer of modern architecture. Over the years, he has designed design classics such as the Barcelona Chair, Barcelona Table and the MR Chair, all of which are on display at NO-GA. Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe has also coined the expression "less is more" which today can well describe the designer's pioneering development in functionalism and minimalism.