Master of modernism, the minimalist of "less is more"
A German-American architect, one of the three giants of modernist architecture, the embodiment of minimalism. He believed in "less is more," stripping architecture to only the purest structure and space: precise steel frame, transparent glass curtain wall, open flowing plan, without a trace of superfluous ornament. He also had the famous line "God is in the details" — such extreme simplicity precisely demands extreme care over every joint, every inch of proportion. His Barcelona Pavilion and the Seagram Building in New York defined the "glass box" skyscraper that now covers cities worldwide. He purified architecture into a calm, precise, near-classical beauty of order.
Mies summed up his philosophy in two lines. One is "less is more": strip away all excess and let the pure structure and space speak. The other is "God is in the details": precisely because there is no ornament, every joint, every edge, every proportion must be done to perfection, or simplicity sinks into crudeness. He proved that the hardest thing is not to add, but to subtract.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.