Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe was born in Aachen, Germany in 1886. After training with his father, a master stonemason, at 19 he moved to Berlin, where he worked for Bruno Paul, the art nouveau architect and furniture designer. 

In 1908 he began working for the architect Peter Behrens while he studied the architecture of the Karl Friedrich Schinkel and Frank Lloyd Wright. He opened his own office in Berlin in 1912.

After WW1, Van der Rohe began studying the skyscraper and designed two innovative steel-framed towers encased in glass, one of which was the Friedrichstrasse skyscraper, designed in 1921 for a competition. Although it was never built, the innovative design drew critical praise and foreshadowed his skyscraper designs of the late 40s and 50s.

In the 20’s he was active in a number of Berlin avant-garde circles ( the magazine 'G' and organisations such as the 'Novembergruppe', 'Zehner Ring', and 'Arbeitsrat für Kunst') that supported modern art and architecture along with artists like Hans Richter and Theo van Doesburg. Van der Rohe was appointed artistic director of the Werkbund-sponsored Weissenhof project (a model housing colony in Stuttgart where the modern apartments and houses were designed by leading European architects, including a block by himself).

In 1927 he designed one of his most famous buildings, the German pavilion at the international exposition in Barcelona. In 1929, this small hall, known as the Barcelona pavilion (for which he also designed the famous chrome and leather 'Barcelona chair'), had a flat roof supported by columns; the pavilion’s internal walls, made of glass and marble, could be moved around as they did not support the structure.

In 1930, Van der Rohe met New York architect Philip Johnson, who included several of his projects in MoMA’s (Museum of Modern Art) first architecture exhibition held in 1932, 'modern architecture: international exhibition', which introduced his work to the American public.

In the30s, the political and economic situation in Germany meant that none of his designs were built. He was director of the Bauhaus school from 1930 until 1933, when it was shut down by the Nazis for being ‘degenerate’.

In 1937, Van der Rohe emigrated to the United States and from 1938 to 1958 he was head of architecture at the Armour Institute of Technology in Chicago. In the 1940s, he was asked to design a new campus for the institute, a project which defined his steel-and-glass style. 

By 1944 he had become an American citizen and during this period he designed one of his most famous buildings, a small weekend retreat outside Chicago, a transparent box framed by eight exterior steel columns. The ‘Farnsworth House’ is one of the most radically minimalist houses ever designed. Its interior, a single room, is subdivided by partitions and completely enclosed in glass.

In the 50s Van der Rohe continued to develop this concept of open, flexible space on a much larger scale: he finally realized his dream of building a glass skyscraper, the ‘Twin Towers’ in Chicago, followed by other high-rises in Chicago, New York, Detroit, Toronto and culminating in 1954 with the 'Seagram' building in New York, which was hailed as a masterpiece of skyscraper design. 

In 1962 he was invited to design the new National Gallery in Berlin. His design for this building achieved his long-held vision of an exposed steel structure that directly connected interior space to the landscape. He returned to Berlin several times while the gallery was under construction, but was unable to attend the opening in 1968, and died in Chicago on August 17, 1969.