Mies van der Rohe

Abstract

It IS not easy to define what distinguishes the architecture of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe from that of his many outstanding contemporaries, and what makes it, to some of us, particularly interesting and attractive. Modern architecture, in a few decades, has created a stock of conventions, which, as those of older architecture, are apt to hide, at least for the average spectator, the individuality of the single artist, even should he happen to be among their originators. To Mies van der Rohe the architecture of today, indeed, owes a great number of fundamental ideas which have become generally accepted and which now are part of the common language of many. It is a fascinating task for the historian to define precisely the share which Mies van der Rohe had in the formation of this new vocabulary, and yet, such an investigation would only throw a superficial light on the distinctive character of his architecture.