Many different styles and types of modern architecture are studied by and influential to today's world of design. One very unique and significant style of this period is that of Mies van der Rohe. Mies practiced architecture in a time when all previously known rules were being replaced by new ideas and building techniques. The life and works of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe are characterized by his influence on modernism. One great comparison would be his first work, Villa Reihls, and his later more minimalist works including the Barcelona Pavilion and the Farnsworth House. While working as director of the Bauhaus School he educated many students on the important aspects of modernism. .
The life of Mies van der Rohe begins in Aachan, Germany on March 27, 1886. However his career as an architect did not begin until nineteen years later when he moved to Berlin to work for architect and furniture designer Bruno Paul. He later began to work under industrial architect Peter Behrens. The lessons he learned from Behrens office became very evident early in Mies's career. In some of his earliest projects he produced models of skyscrapers with steel frames and glass walls. Mies then opened his own architecture firm in 1912. His "respect for things and materials,"" was very evident from early on (Neumeyer, 32). Other than his apprenticeships Mies had no formal education. He only studied for two years in a trade school then went to work for his father in his stonemason's shop. He never showed much enthusiasm toward art or architecture theory only toward the design process.
Mies's first job, on his own, was Villa Reihls. He was close friends with the Reihls family before they contracted them to do work for them. At .
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the time he was hired to do this work he had absolutely no formal education. Mies was highly noted for many different aspects of his first work including not only the house itself but also its location on the sight.
