Editing Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (section)

==Transition from traditionalism to Modernism==
[[File:Villa Wolf Guben 01.jpg|thumb|Patio of [[Villa Wolf (Gubin)|Villa Wolf]], built in 1926 in Guben (now Gubin in Poland) for Erich and Elisabeth Wolf. The villa was destroyed in the aftermath of [[World War II]], and there are joint German-Polish plans for its reconstruction.]]
[[File:Barcelona mies v d rohe pavillon weltausstellung1999 03.jpg|thumb|[[Barcelona Pavilion]] in Barcelona, constructed in 1929 for the world exposition. Never intended to be permanent, it was demolished in 1930 as was typically done for exhibition structures, but it was re-erected in 1986 by a team of local architects.]]
[[File:Vila Tugendhat interior Dvorak.jpg|thumb|[[Villa Tugendhat]] built in 1930 in Brno for Fritz Tugendhat]]
After [[World War I]], while still designing traditional neoclassical homes, Mies began a parallel experimental effort. He joined his avant-garde peers in the long-running search for a new style that would be suitable for the modern industrial age. The weak points of traditional styles had been under attack by progressive theorists since the mid-nineteenth century, primarily for the contradictions of hiding modern construction technology with a facade of ornamented traditional styles.

The mounting criticism of the historical styles gained substantial cultural credibility after World War I, a disaster widely seen as a failure of the old world order of imperial leadership of Europe. The aristocratic classical revival styles were particularly reviled by many as the architectural symbol of a now-discredited and outmoded social system. Progressive thinkers called for a completely new architectural design process guided by rational problem-solving and an exterior expression of modern materials and structure rather than what they considered the superficial application of classical facades.

While continuing his traditional neoclassical design practice, Mies began to develop visionary projects that, though mostly unbuilt, rocketed him to fame as an architect capable of giving form that was in harmony with the spirit of the emerging modern society. Boldly abandoning ornament altogether, Mies made a dramatic modernist debut in 1921 with his stunning competition proposal for the faceted all-glass [[Friedrichstraße]] skyscraper, followed by a taller curved version in 1922 named the Glass Skyscraper.<ref>{{Cite news| last=Lubow| first=Arthur| date=April 6, 2008| title=The Contextualizer| language=en-US| work=The New York Times| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/magazine/06nouvel.html| access-date=March 10, 2023|issn=0362-4331| page=4}}</ref>

He constructed his first modernist house with the [[Villa Wolf (Gubin)|Villa Wolf]] in 1926 in Guben (today [[Gubin, Poland|Gubin]], Poland) for Erich and Elisabeth Wolf.<ref>{{Cite web| url=https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/die-mies-memory-box.691.de.html?dram:article_id=49860| title=Die "Mies-Memory-Box"| website=Deutschlandfunk| date=July 29, 2006}}</ref> This was shortly followed by [[Haus Lange and Haus Esters]] in 1928.

He continued with a series of pioneering projects, culminating in his two European masterworks: the temporary [[Barcelona Pavilion|German Pavilion]] for the [[1929 Barcelona International Exposition|Barcelona exposition]] (often called the Barcelona Pavilion) in 1929<ref>Farnsworth House. [http://www.farnsworthhouse.org/history.htm "History"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070224063735/http://www.farnsworthhouse.org/history.htm |date=February 24, 2007 }}, ''[[Farnsworth House]]'', Retrieved on January 30, 2013.</ref> (a 1986 reconstruction is now built on the original site) and the elegant [[Villa Tugendhat]] in [[Brno]], [[Czechoslovakia]], completed in 1930.

He joined the German avant-garde, working with the progressive design magazine ''G'', which started in July 1923. He developed prominence as architectural director of the [[Deutscher Werkbund|Werkbund]], organizing the influential [[Weissenhof Estate]] prototype modernist housing exhibition.<ref>{{cite book| last1=Ross| first1=Stephen| title=The Modernist World| last2=Lindgreen| first2=Allana C.| date=2015| publisher=Routledge| isbn=9780415473781|page=317}}</ref> He was also one of the founders of the architectural association [[Der Ring]]. He joined the avant-garde Bauhaus design school as their director of architecture, adopting and developing their functionalist application of simple geometric forms in the design of useful objects. He served as its last director.

Like many other avant-garde architects of the day, Mies based his architectural mission and principles on his understanding and interpretation of ideas developed by theorists and critics who pondered the declining relevance of the traditional design styles. He selectively adopted theoretical ideas such as the aesthetic credos of [[Russia]]n [[Constructivism (art)|Constructivism]] with their ideology of "efficient" sculptural assembly of modern industrial materials. 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 [[Netherlands|Dutch]] [[De Stijl]] group. In particular, the layering of functional sub-spaces within an overall space and the distinct articulation of parts as expressed by [[Gerrit Rietveld]] appealed to Mies.{{citation needed|date=January 2017}}

As households in the [[middle class]] and [[upper class]] could increasingly afford [[household appliance]]s, modern architects like Mies, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and [[Adolf Loos]] rejected decorative architecture and became drivers of a modern [[Arts and Crafts movement]] in Europe.<ref>{{cite book | author1=Victoria Rosner |title=Machines for Living: Modernism and Domestic Life |publisher=OUP Oxford |year=2020 |page=17 |isbn=9780192583819 }}</ref>

Mies and Le Corbusier later acknowledged the lasting impact [[Frank Lloyd Wright]]'s ''[[Wasmuth Portfolio]]'' had after it was exhibited in Berlin.<ref>{{cite book | author1=Clare Cardinal-Pett |title=A History of Architecture and Urbanism in the Americas |publisher= Taylor & Francis |year=2015 |page=443 |isbn= 9781317431251 }}</ref>