Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969), along with Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright and Walter Gropius, is one of the most important architects of the 20th century. He was the director of the Bauhaus at the time the Lemke House was designed and built. This private home for Lemke and his wife was Mies’s last project before emigrating to America in 1938. Mies professes his love of brick here, choosing a very simple, shaded red brick to create a refined surface that is both beautiful and lively. The house demonstrates Mies’s genius for using a minimum of material to produce maximum quality in order to satisfy the needs of modern living. To quote Mies, “It is important not to confuse simple with simplistic”. Haus Lemke was an important step in Mies’s quest for “truth” in architecture.