Ludwig Mies van der Rohe: influences, peers and legacy

Every connection with its receipt

Mies van der Rohe's austere steel-and-glass idiom was assembled from Prussian neoclassicism, Dutch and Russian avant-garde abstraction, and the industrial pragmatism of Peter Behrens's Berlin office. This mix traces those threads from Aachen and Berlin through the Bauhaus to Chicago, and follows them out into the glass boxes of his successors.

The Kynda mix for Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

• Key Influence · AEG Turbine Factory by Peter Behrens (1909). Mies worked in Behrens's Berlin studio from 1908 to 1912, alongside Gropius and Le Corbusier, and the turbine hall was the office's defining commission of those years: a temple of industry with glass curtain infill between structural piers. The monumental frame-and-glazing logic, and Behrens's habit of giving factories classical gravity, resurfaces decades later in Mies's Chicago halls and his IIT campus.medium
• Influencia Obscura · Hochhausstadt (High-Rise City) project by Ludwig Hilberseimer (1924). Hilberseimer was Mies's closest intellectual ally: co-organizer of Weissenhof-era debates, Bauhaus colleague, and later head of city planning at IIT, where he laid out the campus grid Mies filled with buildings. His chilling gridded high-rise city, little known outside planning history, supplies the urban logic behind Lafayette Park in Detroit, which the two men designed together with landscape architect Alfred Caldwell.
• Local Roots · Einstein Tower, Potsdam by Erich Mendelsohn (1921). Mendelsohn was Mies's rival within the same Berlin milieu of the early 1920s — both belonged to the circles agitating for a new architecture around the Novembergruppe and the Ring, whose exhibitions Mies helped organize. The Einstein Tower shows the expressionist current Mies passed through and rejected, sharpening his choice of skin-and-bones structure over sculptural mass in the very same city.
• Beyond the Medium · Black Square by Kazimir Malevich (1915). Suprematist and Constructivist abstraction reached Berlin through the 1922 Russian exhibition at Galerie van Diemen and the magazine G, which Mies co-financed and published in with Hans Richter and Werner Graeff. Malevich's floating geometries underwrite the asymmetric, non-hierarchical planning of Mies's 1923 Brick Country House project — walls as sliding planes rather than an enclosed box.
• Peer · Villa Savoye, Poissy by Le Corbusier (1931). Le Corbusier and Mies both passed through Behrens's office and both built at Weissenhof in 1927 under Mies's direction, becoming the twin poles of interwar modernism. Villa Savoye's pilotis, free plan and ribbon windows are the French counterpart to Mies's Tugendhat House of the same years — same program, opposite temperaments: plastic sculpture versus structural clarity.
• From the Canon · Farnsworth House, Plano, Illinois by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1951). Commissioned by physician Edith Farnsworth, whose lawsuit over costs ended their relationship, this single glazed room slung between eight welded steel columns is Mies's American argument reduced to essentials: structure outside, space inside, nothing else. Its floating white frame and travertine terraces distilled decades of unbuilt glass-house studies and set the terms for postwar residential modernism.
• Key Collaborator · Café Samt und Seide (Velvet and Silk Café), Berlin by Lilly Reich (1927). Reich was Mies's partner in work and life from the mid-1920s until his emigration; she collaborated on Weissenhof exhibits, the Barcelona Pavilion interiors, the Tugendhat and Lange houses, and ran the Bauhaus interior-design workshop under his directorship. Her Berlin café — rooms formed purely from hanging lengths of silk and velvet — is the clearest statement of space made from suspended planes.
• Legacy · Glass House, New Canaan by Philip Johnson (1949). Johnson curated Mies into MoMA's 1932 Modern Architecture show, wrote the first monograph on him in 1947, and lured him toward the Seagram commission. His own weekend house is an openly declared homage — a glazed pavilion on a podium, built two years before Farnsworth, which Mies is said to have received coolly. Johnson turned Miesian discipline into the lingua franca of American corporate building.

What influenced Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

• Peter Behrens. Mies apprenticed under Peter Behrens, an influence lineage. (also via AEG Turbine Factory) “he traveled to Germany and worked for four months in the office of Peter Behrens , where Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius were also working and learning.” (Wikipedia)
• De Stijl. Mies was influenced by De Stijl group ideas. “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 expounded by the Dutch De Stijl group.” (Wikipedia)
• Gerrit Rietveld. Rietveld's spatial articulation appealed to and influenced Mies. “the layering of functional sub-spaces within an overall space and the distinct articulation of parts as expressed by Gerrit Rietveld appealed to Mies.” (Wikipedia)
• Russian Constructivism. Mies drew on Russian Constructivism's aesthetic ideas. “He selectively adopted theoretical ideas such as the aesthetic credos of Russian Constructivism with their ideology of "efficient" sculptural assembly of modern industrial materials.” (Wikipedia)
• Bruno Paul. Mies worked under interior designer Bruno Paul early in career. “he joined the office of interior designer Bruno Paul” (Wikipedia)
• Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow by Piet Mondrian (1930). Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow (Piet Mondrian) — culture for Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (wikidata.org)
• AEG Turbine Factory by Peter Behrens (1909). AEG Turbine Factory (Peter Behrens) — titan for Ludwig Mies van der Rohe “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.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Black Square by Kazimir Malevich (1915). Black Square (Kazimir Malevich) — culture for Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (wikidata.org)
• The World as Will and Representation by Arthur Schopenhauer (1818). The World as Will and Representation (Arthur Schopenhauer) — culture for Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (openlibrary.org)
• Beurs van Berlage (Amsterdam Stock Exchange) by Hendrik Petrus Berlage (1903). Beurs van Berlage (Amsterdam Stock Exchange) (Hendrik Petrus Berlage) — ghost for Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
• Wasmuth Portfolio by Frank Lloyd Wright. Mies acknowledged the impact of Frank Lloyd Wright's Wasmuth Portfolio.
• Adolf Loos. Critics compared Mies's Seagram design to violating Adolf Loos's principle against ornamentation.
• Altes Museum, Berlin by Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1830). Altes Museum, Berlin (Karl Friedrich Schinkel) — titan for Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
• Hochhausstadt (High-Rise City) project by Ludwig Hilberseimer (1924). Hochhausstadt (High-Rise City) project (Ludwig Hilberseimer) — ghost for Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
• Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781). Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe) — legacy for Karl Friedrich Schinkel (via Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Altes Museum, Berlin)

Peers and kindred spirits

• Le Corbusier. Mies worked alongside Le Corbusier at Behrens' studio. (also via Barcelona Pavilion, Villa Savoye, Poissy) “Seventeen leading modernist architects in Europe were invited to design twenty-one houses; Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe played a major part.” (Wikipedia)
• Bauhaus. Mies was the last director of the Bauhaus, an institutional connection. “In the 1930s, Mies was the last director of the Bauhaus, a ground-breaking school of modernist art, design and architecture in Germany.” (Wikipedia)
• Philip Johnson (1818). Philip Johnson collaborated on the Seagram Building's interior. (via Seagram Building, Edith Farnsworth House, The International Style: Architecture Since 1922) “Philip Johnson had a role in interior materials selections, and he designed the sumptuous Four Seasons Restaurant.” (Wikipedia)
• Walter Gropius. Mies worked alongside Walter Gropius at Behrens' studio. (also via Barcelona Pavilion, Bauhaus Building, Dessau) “He worked alongside Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius, who was later also involved in the development of the Bauhaus.” (Wikipedia)
• Illinois Institute of Technology. Mies headed the architecture department at IIT. “When the Armour Institute merged with the Lewis Institute to form the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in 1940, Mies remained on IIT's faculty to head its architecture department.” (Wikipedia)
• Lilly Reich (1885). Lilly Reich collaborated with Mies on furniture design. (also via Café Samt und Seide (Velvet and Silk Café), Berlin) “Mies, often in collaboration with Lilly Reich, designed modern furniture pieces using new industrial technologies that have become popular classics” (Wikipedia)
• Virgil Abloh (1980). S. R. Crown Hall, Illinois Institute of Technology (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe) — geography for Virgil Abloh (via S. R. Crown Hall, Illinois Institute of Technology, Crown Hall) “Abloh was further inspired by Crown Hall , designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe .” (Wikipedia)
• Werkbund. Mies served as architectural director of the Werkbund. “He developed prominence as architectural director of the Werkbund, organizing the influential Weissenhof Estate prototype modernist housing exhibition.” (Wikipedia)
• Paul Berens. Describes van der Rohe's professional work with fellow architect Paul Berens (likely Peter Behrens). “He talks of his work with the famous German architect Paul Berens” (Heritage (public broadcasting))
• North Carolina State University. Mies received an honorary doctorate, an institutional connection. “In 1956 Mies received an honorary doctorate from North Carolina State University.” (Wikipedia)
• Der Ring. Mies co-founded the architectural association Der Ring. “He was also one of the founders of the architectural association Der Ring.” (Wikipedia)
• Mies van der Rohe. Host states the Farnsworth House was designed by the famous architect Mies van der Rohe (name garbled in transcript). (via Farnsworth House) “This is a house that was designed by a very famous architect the spender O.” (Focus 580 (public broadcasting))
• Bauhaus Building, Dessau by Walter Gropius (1926). Bauhaus Building, Dessau (Walter Gropius) — peer for Ludwig Mies van der Rohe “He worked alongside Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius, who was later also involved in the development of the Bauhaus.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Einstein Tower, Potsdam by Erich Mendelsohn (1921). Einstein Tower, Potsdam (Erich Mendelsohn) — geography for Ludwig Mies van der Rohe “In that same year, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius, he was one of the founders of the progressive architectural group known as Der Ring.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Villa Savoye, Poissy by Le Corbusier (1931). Villa Savoye, Poissy (Le Corbusier) — peer for Ludwig Mies van der Rohe “He worked alongside Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius, who was later also involved in the development of the Bauhaus.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Hufeisensiedlung (Horseshoe Estate), Berlin-Britz by Bruno Taut (1925). Hufeisensiedlung (Horseshoe Estate), Berlin-Britz (Bruno Taut) — geography for Ludwig Mies van der Rohe “In contrast to the pure-white entries from Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius, Taut's house (Number 19) was painted in primary colours.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• The International Style: Architecture Since 1922 by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson (1932). The International Style: Architecture Since 1922 (Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson) — collaborator for Ludwig Mies van der Rohe “The International Style can be traced to buildings designed by a small group of modernists, the major figures of which include Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Jacobus Oud, Le Corbusier, Richard Neutra and Philip Johnson.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Café Samt und Seide (Velvet and Silk Café), Berlin by Lilly Reich (1927). Café Samt und Seide (Velvet and Silk Café), Berlin (Lilly Reich) — collaborator for Ludwig Mies van der Rohe “In 1925, Mies began a relationship with designer Lilly Reich that ended when he moved to the United States; from 1940 until his death, artist Lora Marx (1900–1989) was his primary companion.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Louis Kahn (1901). Farnsworth House (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe) — peer for Louis Kahn (via Farnsworth House) (wikidata.org)
• Eileen Gray. Barcelona Pavilion (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe) — peer for Eileen Gray (via Barcelona Pavilion) (wikidata.org)

Who Ludwig Mies van der Rohe influenced

• One Farragut Square South. Writer states the new Farragut Square building's glass-wall design derives from Mies van der Rohe's architectural principles. (also via Seagram Building) “derives from the glass wall adventures of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the best known examples of which are the Seagram Building and Lever House in New York” (Evening Star (Washington, D.C.))
• Robert Venturi (1925). Venturi's postmodern motto was framed as a direct response to Mies's aesthetic. “In 1966 Robert Venturi coined the post-modern motto "less is a bore" as countervision to Mies's motto "less is more".” (Wikipedia)
• Tadao Ando (1941). Ando traveled to study Mies van der Rohe's buildings. “He later travelled to study buildings by masters such as Le Corbusier , Ludwig Mies van der Rohe , Frank Lloyd Wright , and Louis Kahn” (Wikipedia)
• Peter Roesch (1950). Peter Roesch studied under Mies at IIT. “This new style of architecture is evident in the buildings designed by Kevin Roche and Peter Roesch, Mies's students at IIT in Chicago.” (Wikipedia)
• Kevin Roche (1922). Kevin Roche studied under Mies at IIT. “This new style of architecture is evident in the buildings designed by Kevin Roche and Peter Roesch, Mies's students at IIT in Chicago.” (Wikipedia)
• George Danforth (1808). Establishes that Danforth trained under Mies van der Rohe at Illinois Institute of Technology, forming a mentor-student lineage. “George Danforth, the only interviewer on the four episodes, began his career in architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology under the direction of Mies van der Rohe.” (Heritage (public broadcasting))
• Off-White. Abloh cited Farnsworth House as the inspiration for his first Off-White collection. (via Farnsworth House) “Abloh said his first Off-White collection was inspired by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe 's floating glass home, Farnsworth House” (Wikipedia)
• Casa de Vidro. Bo Bardi drew on the Farnsworth House in designing Casa de Vidro. (via Farnsworth House) “She also drew from other American modernist works, such as Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House and Case Study House No. 8 by Charles and Ray Eames , both of which were widely publicized at the time.” (Wikipedia)
• Glass House, New Canaan by Philip Johnson (1949). Glass House, New Canaan (Philip Johnson) — legacy for Ludwig Mies van der Rohe “== Emigration to the United States == Mies's first US commission was the interior of Philip Johnson's New York apartment, in 1930.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• I. M. Pei (1917). Farnsworth House (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe) — titan for I. M. Pei (via Farnsworth House) (wikidata.org)
• Rem Koolhaas (1944). Seagram Building (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe) — titan for Rem Koolhaas (via Seagram Building) (wikidata.org)
• Norma Merrick Sklarek (1926). Seagram Building (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe) — titan for Norma Merrick Sklarek (via Seagram Building) (wikidata.org)
• The Brutalist. Mies inspired a character in Brady Corbet's film The Brutalist, a cross-medium influence.
• Glass Pavilion, Toledo Museum of Art by SANAA (2006). Glass Pavilion, Toledo Museum of Art (SANAA) — legacy for Ludwig Mies van der Rohe