Building

Architecture expresses how man protects himself from the external world and how he controls it. It is a mental act translated into space.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) contributed a number of masterful and unique buildings to the canon of modern architecture. He is mainly remembered for his maxim “less is more”. During the hard pre-war times he served as a director of architecture at Bauhaus. In Bohemia he is known primarily as the architect of the Villa Tugendhat in Brno. He was a pioneering personality that influenced a whole generation of architects (J. Fragner, V. Obrtel, K. Honzík...). This collection is based on Fritz Neumayer’s book Das kunstlose Wort (1986), which contains a supplement summarizing all Mies van der Rohe’s essays, lectures and interviews.