"Less Is More"

It is easy to throw stones at the glass houses of Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. To traditionalists, who want their living and working places to combine comfort and beauty, Mies's stark, steel-ribbed structures seem as sterile--and ominous--as a steer's skeleton burned white in the desert sun. But Mies* is one of the most important architects of his time. Together with Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, he has had a profound influence on cityscapes of the 20th century.

Since he settled in the U.S. in 1938, after shutting down Germany's famed Bauhaus rather than submit to the cultural dictates of the Nazis, Mies has led his crusade from Chicago. As director of architecture for the Illinois Institute of Technology, he has passed along his revolutionary theories to hundreds of students, has put his ideas into practice in the designing of 14 buildings built on Illinois Tech's campus. Last week Illinois Tech put on display Mies's latest design: a new building to house his own department of architecture and the Institute of Design, founded in 1937 as a new-world successor to the Bauhaus.

Skin & Bones. Mies has designed for Illinois Tech a striking, one-story glass-and-steel box, in which his theories are given full expression. The new building, to be ready next summer, achieves Mies's "universal space" by having a 120-ft. by 220-ft. area completely free of supports or other encumbrances; he turned the trick by suspending the roof from four outside steel girders. Says Architect Mies: "It is a practical thing, because it leaves the ceiling completely free of interruption. There is an esthetic reason, too. The girders draw attention. A girder is nothing to be ashamed of."

Mies is not ashamed of girders or any other structural element that is usually hidden. In his prewar European constructions, as in his later skin & bones designs in the U.S., he seems bent on showing the skeleton of the building. This stems from his contention that modern architecture should be structural architecture. Says he: "The old way was to look at architecture as a display of forms. We concentrate on the simple, basic structure, and we believe the structural way gives more freedom and variety. Remember, we are not trying to please people. We are driving to the essence of things."

Fried Residents. The essence of Mies's architectural philosophy is in his famous and sometimes derided phrase, "Less is more." This means, he says, having "the greatest effect with the least means." Some of the best examples of the less-is-more approach are among the buildings Mies has designed for the Illinois Tech campus--simple, clean-lined constructions of glass ribbed with steel, which well serve their uncomplicated purpose as lighted areas for study. Similarly, his twin glass apartment skyscrapers on Chicago's lakefront make the most of the view, although some residents complain that the summer sun beating against so much glass sizzles the occupants.

Mies himself has no such worries; he does not live in one of his own glass houses, but in a fusty, 30-year-old building on the North Side. There, in upholstered comfort, he smokes cigars at a furious rate (twelve to 24 daily) and thinks about the architecture of the present and future. Architecture is great, he thinks, "only when it is an expression of its time. Architecture is the battleground. It is a struggle to find the essential factors."

*Born Ludwig Mies, he appended his mother's maiden name to give himself a more resounding last name.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.