Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886 - 1969)

Mies van der Rohe was principally an architect, an outstanding figure in the Modern Movement of architecture and design. The great cityscapes we see today can be traced back to his influence in pioneering designs for a modern city of glass and steel buildings reaching for the sky.

Together with Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright he had an enormous impact on modern architecture, following a period studying architecture in Berlin. His most significant European building projects, the German Pavilion at the Barcelona World Fair (1929) and the Villa Tugendhat in Brno (1930), were the turning point of modern architecture. His influence on the Modernist school of architecture in the US is no less significant, as witnessed by the Seagram Building (1958) in New York and Farnsworth House (1950) in Chicago.

Van der Rohe's furniture designs are connected to these buildings and reflect their architectural approach. Like Mackintosh, his furniture complements the nature of his buildings, reflecting his influence across a seamless partnership of architecture and interior design.

His furniture designs are among the most influential of the modernist movement. The Barcelona chair, stool and table were designed for his German Pavilion at the Barcelona exhibition of 1929, becoming symbolic of the elegance of Mies's furniture. His tubular steel chairs are today considered to be among the most significant designs of the twentieth century, with a greater use of natural, curved shapes than the more geometric style of many of his contemporaries.